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Presented    by  Vr2/5\  <^<&\^V^RaVV 


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BV  2063  .M344  1898 
Martin,  Chalmers. 
Apostolic  and  modern 
missions 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2010  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


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STUDENTS'    LECTURES   ON    MISSIONS 
^PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 
M  DCCC  XCV 


Apostolic  and  Modern 
Missions 


BV 


Rev.  Chalmers  Martin,  A.M. 

SOMETIME   MISSIONARY   IN   SIAM 

ELLIOTT   F.    SHEPARD    INSTRUCTOR   IN  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

DEPARTMENT,   PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


New  York  Chicago 


Toronto 


Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 


M  DCCC  XCVIII 


Copyright  i8g& 

by 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company. 


TO  THE 
FACULTY  AND  STUDENTS 
OF  PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

AT  WHOSE  INVITATION  THESE  LECTURES  WERE 

WRITTEN   AND   IN   RESPONSE  TO  WHOSE 

KIND  URGENCY  THEY  ARE  NOW 

PUBLISHED 


Preface 

In  the  year  1894  the  author  was  invited 
to  deliver  the  Students'  Lectures  on  Missions 
at  Princeton  Theological  Seminary.  In  re- 
sponse to  this  invitation  the  lectures  embod- 
ied in  this  book  were  written.  They  were 
delivered  in  the  spring  of  1895.  They  were 
afterward  (1897)  published  in  the  Presby- 
terian and  Reformed  Review.  In  deference 
to  the  estimate  put  upon  them  by  several 
persons  whose  judgment  is  entitled  to  great 
respect  they  are  now  presented  to  the  Chris- 
tian public  in  a  permanent  form.  The  mat- 
ter, originally  disposed  in  four  lectures,  has 
now  been  arranged  in  eight  chapters.  Ex- 
cept for  this,  and  some  minor  changes  and 
additions,  the  lectures  appear  as  they  were 
delivered.  C.  M. 

Princeton,  N.  J.,  Jan.  1,  1898. 


Contents 


chapter  I 

PAGE 

The  Peinciples  of  Apostolic  Missions  -    15 

The  necessity  for  some  authoritative  standard  for 
the  missionary  work  of  the  church.  Such  a  stand- 
ard may  be  found  either  in  the  Great  Commission 
or  in  the  example  of  the  Apostles.  The  relation  of 
these  to  each  other.  Our  question  is,  Are  modern 
missions  essentially  apostolic  ?  Some  limitations  to 
be  observed. 

Under  principles  of  missions  we  inquire  particu- 
larly as  to  aim  and  motives.  What  was  the  aim  of 
apostolic  missions?  Bearing  of  the  Great  Commis- 
sion on  this  question.  Evidence  drawn  from  Acts 
i.-xii.  as  to  way  in  which  the  eleven  understood  the 
last  command,  and  as  to  their  aim  as  missionaries. 

Did  Paul  also  receive  the  Great  Commission? 
Review  of  Paul's  work  with  a  view  to  discovery  of 
his  missionary  aim.  Negatively,  this  was  not 
merely  the  widest  possible  proclamation  of  the  gos- 
pel, nor  the  winning  of  the  largest  possible  number 
of  converts.  Positively,  it  was  the  establishment 
of  self-governing,  self-supporting,  and  self-extend- 
ing churches. 

The  motives  of  apostolic  missions :  (1)  Obedience 
to  the  command  of  Christ ;  (2)  Love  to  Christ  and 
zeal  for  His  honor ;  (3)  Compassion  for  a  world  per- 
ishing in  sin. 

CHAPTER  II 

The  Principles  of  Modern  Missions       -      -    46 

The  aim  of  modern  missions.  Some  have  pro- 
posed ' '  The  evangelization  of  the  world  in  this  gen- 

9 


Contents 


PAGE 

eration  "  as  a  statement  of  the  true  aim.  Criticism 
of  this  view :  (1)  It  ignores  the  difficulties  attend- 
ing an  intelligible  proclamation  of  the  gospel  to  the 
heathen ;  (2)  It  ignores  our  responsibility  for  re- 
sults in  conversions ;  (3)  It  ignores  the  aim  of 
Christianizing  the  world  as  well  as  evangelizing  it; 
(4)  It  depends  for  its  support  upon  certain  eschato- 
logical  theories  of  doubtful  value;  (5)  It  is  incon- 
sistent with  the  Great  Commission ;  (6)  It  is  incon- 
sistent with  the  example  of  the  apostles ;  (7)  It  is 
not  the  aim  cherished  by  the  great  leaders  of  the 
modern  missionary  movement. 

The  real  aim  of  modern  missions  as  shown  in  la- 
bors of  Eliot,  Brainerd,  Ziegenbalg  and  Pliitschau, 
Schwartz,  Carey  and  his  associates,  and  the  plat- 
forms of  the  great  mission  boards  and  conferences. 

The  motives  of  modern  missions  the  same  as  those 
which  actuated  the  apostles,  Testimony  of  Eliot, 
Zinzendorf,  Carey,  Judson,  Livingstone.  The  unity 
of  all  motives  iu  Christ  Himself. 

CHAPTER  III 

The  Peoblem  of  Apostolic  Missions  -    72 

The  problem,  not  the  problems.  Importance  of 
the  subject  thus  defined.  It  divides  into  the  exter- 
nal and  the  internal  problems. 

External  difficulties  in  way  of  apostolic  missions: 
(1)  Physical  difficulties — extent  of  Roman  world, 
lack  of  facilities  for  travel ;  (2)  Intellectual  diffi- 
culties— diversities  of  language,  influence  of  dom- 
inant philosophies ;  (3)  Moral  and  spiritual  diffi- 
culties— pervasive  influence  of  false  religions,  op- 
position offered  by  ministers  of  these  religions,  by 
the  Roman  state,  and  by  Judaism,  the  moral  cor- 
ruptions of  the  time. 

Obstacles  within  the  apostolic  church  itself:  im- 
perfect conceptions  as  to  simplicity  and  universality 
of  the  gospel,  influence  of  the  Judaizing  party. 

Some  influences  favorable  to  missions :  evidences 
that  "the  fulness  of  the  times"  had  come;  con- 

10 


Contents 

PAGE 

tribution  to  the  preparation  of  the  world  for  mis- 
sions made  by  Rome,  by  Greece,  and  by  Judaism. 

The  preparation  of  the  church  for  missions  :  the 
providential  training  of  the  eleven  ;  the  special 
missionary  vocation  and  qualification  of  Paul. 

CHAPTER  IV 

The  Peoblem  of  Modekn  Missions    -  104 

The  modern  world  very  different  from  the  world 
in  the  first  century,  and  the  modern  church  from 
the  apostolic  church.  Despite  these  differences  the 
problem  of  missions  substantially  the  same  now  as 
then. 

The  difficulties  of  modern  missions,  arising  (1) 
From  the  preoccupation  of  the  heathen  world  by 
false  religions ;  (2)  The  opposition  offered  by  priests 
and  sacred  men  ;  (3)  Resistance  on  grounds  of  com- 
mercial interest,  and  (4)  of  government  policy. 

The  unreadiness  of  the  early  Protestantism  for 
missions. 

The  providential  training  of  the  modern  church. 
The  challenge  of  Von  Welz.  The  stimulus  af- 
forded by  actual  contact  with  heathens  in  New 
England  and  the  Dutch  East  Indies.  Quickening 
of  missionary  zeal  through  the  Pietists,  the  Mora- 
vians, and  the  Wesleyan  revival. 

The  external  preparation  for  modern  missions: 
(1)  Through  geographical  explorations  and  discov- 
eries ;  (2)  Through  the  transfer  of  naval  and  com- 
mercial supremacy  from  Roman  Catholic  Spain  and 
Portugal  to  Protestant  England  and  Holland. 

CHAPTER  V 

The  Methods  op  Apostolic  Missions       -      -    128 

The  term  ' '  missionary  methods  "  to  be  taken  in 
a  wide  sense. 

The  geographical  plan  of  primitive  missions.  This 
divinely  indicated  for  the  eleven  in  the  Great  Com- 
mission itself;  and  for  Paul  by  the  providential  and 

11 


Contents 

PAGE 

supernatural  guidance  vouchsafed  to  him.  It  con- 
sisted in  the  occupation  of  the  great  centres  of  in- 
fluence in  the  Jewish-Roman  world. 

The  missionary  agencies  of  the  apostles.  (1) 
Preaching.  The  place  given  to  this  in  the  Great 
Commission,  in  the  practice  of  the  eleven,  and  of 
Paul.  The  methods  and  scope  of  apostolic  preach- 
ing; (2)  Supervision.  This  included  (a)  personal 
visitation,  (b)  the  employment  of  assistants,  and  (c) 
the  use  of  the  pen ;  (3)  Miracles, — specially,  the 
gifts  of  healing  and  the  gift  of  tongues.  Did  the 
first  missionaries  use  the  gift  of  tongues  in  the 
proclamation  of  the  gospel  ? 

CHAPTER  VI 

The  Methods  of  Modern  Missions   -  165 

Modern  methods  seem  to  he  more  numerous  than 
those  employed  by  the  apostles.  The  great  meth- 
ods, however,  are  still  the  same. 

Preachiug  in  modern  missions:  the  importance 
assigned  to  it ;  the  variety  of  forms  it  assumes;  the 
subordination  of  other  agencies  to  evangelism. 

Supervision  as  a  method  of  modern  missions : 
recognition  of  its  importance  by  the  Serampore 
men  and  by  Livingstone ;  the  details  of  its  applica- 
tion 

No  miracles  in  modern  missions.  To  what  ex- 
tent do  medical  missions  serve  the  same  purpose  ? 

Vindication  of  education  as  a  missionary  method, 
and  one  which  the  apostles  would  have  made  use 
of  had  they  lived  and  labored  in  modern  times. 

CHAPTER  VII 

The  Results  of  Apostolic  Missions       -       -    191 

"These  that  have  turned  the  world  upside 
down."  How  far  did  the  apostles  justify  the 
charge  ? 

(1)  The  extent  to  which  the  gospel  was  pro- 
claimed in  the  apostolic  age;   (2)  The  results  at- 

12 


Contents 

PAGE 

tained  in  converts  and  churches ;  (3)  The  stage  of 
development  reached  by  the  churches  of  the  first 
century ;  (4)  Results  exhibited  in  the  character  of 
individual  converts;  (5)  New  social  forces  set  in 
motion  by  apostolic  missions. 

CHAPTER  VIII 

The  Results  of  Modern  Missions     ...    215 

Is  not  comparison  with  results  of  apostolic  mis- 
sions precluded  in  view  of  greater  length  of  time 
in  which  modern  missions  have  been  prosecuted? 
Answers  to  this  criticism  :  (a)  If  the  results  have 
been  of  same  sort  it  matters  little  whether  they 
have  been  same  in  amount ;  (6)  The  Roman  empire 
far  more  compact  and  homogeneous  than  the  hea- 
then world  in  modern  times ;  (c)  Present  day  re- 
sults of  missions  have,  for  the  most  part,  been 
achieved  since  Carey. 

Extent  to  which  the  gospel  has  been  proclaimed 
by  modern  missions ;  seen  in  the  number  of  places 
where  it  is  regularly  preached,  and  the  number  of 
those  who  make  it  their  chief  business  to  proclaim 
it. 

Results  of  modern  missions  in  converts  and 
churches.  Modern  missionaries  have  not  won  con- 
verts at  once  as  the  apostles  did.  Reasons  for  this. 
Missionaries  themselves  not  disheartened  by  this 
state  of  things.  Cases  of  great  ingatherings  after 
long  waiting. 

Results  of  modern  missions  in  Christian  character 
of  individual  converts. 


13 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 
CHAPTER  I 

THE  PKINCTPLES  OF  APOSTOLIC  MISSIONS 

In  the  United  States  Mint  on  Chestnut 
street,  Philadelphia,  may  be  found,  carefully 
preserved  under  glass,  a  brass  rod  and  a 
brass  disc.  The  rod  is  the  standard  yard, 
the  disc  is  the  standard  Troy  pound  of  the 
United  States.  Sets  of  weights  and  measures 
derived  from  these  two  originals  have  been 
presented  by  Congress  to  the  several  States, 
and  are  by  them  preserved  for  reference  and 
comparison.  Thus  it  comes  to  pass  that 
wherever  throughout  the  land  a  pound,  a 
yard,  a  gallon,  or  a  bushel  is  spoken  of,  men 
feel  that  the  term  used  represents  a  definite 
and  fixed  value.  The  importance  of  estab- 
lishing and  maintaining  these  standard  units 
of  measurement,  the  damage  to  business  in- 
terests that  must  result  should  any  uncer- 
tainty arise  as  to  the  length  of  a  yard  or  the 
number  of  cubic  inches   in  a  gallon,  is  so 

15 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

obvious  that  throughout  the  recent  presi- 
dential campaign  the  opponents  of  the  free 
coinage  of  silver  felt  that  they  could  not 
more  effectively  illustrate  the  disasters 
which,  in  their  judgment,  must  follow  the 
adoption  of  free  coinage,  than  by  a  compari- 
son with  the  inevitable  results  of  any  tam- 
pering with  our  standards  of  weight  and 
measure.  Every  one  understands  why  the 
power  to  establish  such  standards  is  lodged 
by  the  Constitution  in  Congress.  Every  one 
understands  also  that  the  importance  of 
maintaining  such  standards  unquestioned  in- 
creases with  the  growth  of  the  nation  and 
the  expansion  of  its  trade.  Every  new 
factory,  every  wheel  set  turning,  every  fresh 
acre  brought  under  the  plow,  every  ton  of 
ore  or  coal  that  is  mined,  every  new  in- 
dustry, every  new  market,  enhances  the  im- 
portance of  maintaining  our  weights  and 
measures  at  their  true  equivalency ;  en- 
hances also  the  disaster  that  must  ensue  from 
any  failure  of  public  confidence  with  regard 
to  them. 

But  it  is  not  business  alone  that  depends 
for  its  successful  prosecution  on  the  main- 
tenance   of    authoritative    standards.     The 

16 


The  Principles  of  Apostolic  Missions 

same  necessity  obtains  in  every  department 
of  human  activity.  The  astronomer,  the 
physicist,  the  financier,  the  jurist,  the  meta- 
physician, the  theologian,  have  each  their 
accredited  measures  of  time,  volume,  effi- 
ciency, their  authoritative  patterns  of  ex- 
pression, procedure,  belief.  Such  standards 
are  the  legal  money  of  the  world's  thinking ; 
and  so  soon  as  doubt  arises,  in  any  depart- 
ment of  thought,  whether  these  standards 
are  being  faithfully  adhered  to,  uncertainty, 
hesitation,  loss  of  efficiency,  must  be  the  in- 
stant result. 

Now  all  this  has  its  application  to  missions. 
For  this  activity  also  there  must  be  some- 
where a  standard,  a  regulative  pattern.  It 
cannot  be  that  of  all  things  necessary  to  the 
life  of  the  church — her  doctrine,  her  sacra- 
ments, her  ministry — missions  alone,  which  is 
but  another  name  for  her  aggressive  activity 
in  the  world,  should  have  no  pattern  among 
the  things  shown  her  in  the  holy  mount. 
For  only  as  the  church  feels  that  she  has 
such  a  standard  for  her  missionary  endeavor 
can  she  go  forward  in  it  with  energy,  and 
only  as  confidence  prevails  that  this  standard 
is  being  faithfully  adhered  to  can  she  suc- 

.17 


V 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

cessfully  appeal  to  all  her  members  for  its 
prosecution.  But  where  is  such  a  norm  of 
missions  to  be  found  ?  Obviously  in  the  New 
Testament,  and  to  be  more  specific,  first  of 
all  in  the  Great  Commission,  and  then  in  the 
example  of  the  apostles  as  it  is  preserved  to 
us  in  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles.  These  two 
sources  of  authority  with  respect  to  missions 
may  be  said  to  be  related  to  each  other  as 
the  rod  and  disc  in  the  Mint  at  Philadel- 
phia are  to  the  set  of  weights  and  measures 
to  be  found  in  the  State  Capitol  at  Harris- 
burg,  for  example.  The  former  are  the  origi- 
nal and  absolute  standard :  the  latter  have 
only  a  derivative  value ;  but  when  made,  as 
they  have  been,  by  proper  persons  and  under 
proper  conditions,  they  are  also  authoritative, 
and  for  practical  purposes  may  be  quite  as 
important  as  the  originals.  Such  a  value  be- 
longs also  to  apostolic  example  in  missions. 
For  while  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  the 
original  warrant  for  the  missionary  enterprise 
and  the  original  standard  for  its  prosecution 
lies  in  the  Great  Commission,  it  must  on  the 
other  hand  be  granted  that  what  the  apostles 
did  in  obedience  to  that  command  of  Christ 
has  an  authority  which,  though  derivative,  is 

18 


The  Principles  of  Apostolic  Missions 

practically  final,  and  may  be  more  convenient 
to  appeal  to,  since  it  presents  the  mission 
enterprise  in  a  far  more  detailed  form. 

We  therefore  regard  apostolic  missions  as 
depicted  in  the  Acts  and  Epistles  as  a  norm, 
a  regulative  pattern  of  legitimate  missionary 
endeavor.      We   believe   that   the   apostles, 
under  the  illumination  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
understood  aright  their  Master's  bidding  that 
they   "make   disciples   of  all   the   nations." 
We  are  confident  that  the  work  which,  as  we 
read  the  New  Testament,  we  see  them  doing 
is  the  very  work  which  the  Lord  Jesus  had 
in  mind  when  he  laid  his  last  command  upon 
them.    Believing  this,  the  question  which  we 
raise  and  to   which  we  seek  an  answer,  is 
this,  Is   the   work   of  modern   missions   the 
same  work  as  that  carried  on  by  the  apostles? 
In  other  words,  Are  modern  missions  truly 

apostolic  ? 

In  entering  upon  such  a  comparison  as  an 
answer  to  this  question  involves,  several 
limitations  need  to  be  observed.  First,  by 
apostolic  missions  is  meant  the  attempt  of 
the  apostles  and  the  primitive  church  under 
their  guidance  to  proclaim  the  gospel  and  to 
bring  men  under  its  power,  as  this  attempt  is 

19 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

made  known  in  the  New  Testament.  What 
lies  beyond  the  limits  of  the  apostolic  age  and 
what  is  recorded  elsewhere  than  in  the  New 
Testament  has  value  only  for  purposes  of 
illustration.  Secondly,  by  modern  missions 
is  meant  specially  Protestant  missions  since 
the  Reformation,  with  particular  reference  to 
the  organized  form  in  which  they  have  been 
carried  on  from  the  time  of  William  Carey. 
Romish  missions  are  passed  by,  not  because 
they  are  not  important,  but  because  some 
limitation  of  view  is  necessary,  and  because 
it  is  Protestant  missions  in  which  our  interest 
centres,  and  for  which  we  have  peculiar  re- 
sponsibility. Thirdly,  this  comparison  as  to 
apostolic  and  modern  missions  must  have  re- 
gard to  essentials,  not  to  accidentals.  It 
need  not  disturb  us  if,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
modern  mission  enterprise  differs  in  many 
minor  respects  from  missions  as  prosecuted 
by  the  apostles ;  on  the  other  hand,  we  must 
not  be  misled  by  mere  coincidences.  Coin- 
cidences, indeed,  are  many  and  striking,  but 
they  have  value  only  as  they  spring  from  fun- 
damental causes — the  nature  of  man,  for  ex- 
ample, or  the  character  of  the  gospel,  or  the 
unchanging  relations  of  God  to  His  church. 

20 


The  Principles  of  Apostolic  Missions 

Bearing  these  limitations  in  mind,  the  line 
of  comparison  between  apostolic  and  modern 
missions  which  it  is  proposed  to  follow  in 
this  chapter  and  the  following  one  has  refer- 
ence to  the  principles  involved,  particularly 
the  aim  and  the  motives. 

The  Aim  of  Apostolic  Missions 

Our  first  question  then  is,  Does  it  appear 
that  apostolic  and  modern  missions  have  had 
the  same  aim?  What  was  the  conception 
entertained  by  the  apostles  of  the  end  to  be 
accomplished,  and  has  the  same  conception 
guided  the  missionary  endeavors  of  modern 

times  ? 

In  order  to  understand  the  aim  of  the 
apostles  as  missionaries  it  is  necessary  to 
glance  first  at  the  Great  Commission  in  its 
various  forms.  In  saying  this  we  are  not 
shifting  the  basis  of  comparison  from 
apostolic  example  to  the  command  of  Christ. 
Our  purpose  is  not  to  make  a  critical  study 
of  that  momentous  utterance,  but  rather  to 
hear  it  through  the  ears  of  those  who  first  re- 
ceived it.  The  question  we  ask  is  not,  What 
do  these  last  words  of  Christ  mean?  but, 
What  did  the  apostles  understand  them  to 

21 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

mean  ?  And  certainly  a  tentative  answer  to 
this  question  may  be  found  in  the  words 
themselves,  for  the  presumption  is  that  they 
were  understood  in  their  most  obvious  sense. 
Let  us  recall  them,  therefore,  under  their 
fourfold  form : 


Matt,  xxviii. 
18-20. 

"All  authority 
hath  been  given 
unto     me     in 
heaven  and   on 
earth.    Go    ye. 
therefore,     and 
make     disciples' 
of  all  the  nations, 
baptizing     them| 
into  the  name  ofi 
the  Father  and 
of  the  Son  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost 
teaching  them  to 
observe     all 
things     whatso 
ever    I    com- 
manded  you 
and  lo,  I  am  with 
you  alway,  even 
unto  the  eud  of 
the  world." 


Mark  xvi.  15, 16. 

"Go  ye  into  all 
the  world,  and 
preach  the  gos- 
pel to  the  whole 
creation.  He 
that  believeth 
and  is  baptized 
shall  be  saved  ; 
but  he  that  dis- 
believeth  shall 
be  condemned." 


Luke  xxiv.  46-49. 

"  Thus  it  is 
written,  that  the 
Christ  should 
suffer,  and  rise 
again  from  the 
dead  the  third 
day ;  and  that 
repentance  and 
remission  of 
sins  should  be 
preached  in 
name  unto 
the  nations, 
ginning 
Jerusalem 


his 
all 
be- 
from 
Ye 

are  witnesses 
of  these  things. 
And  behold,  I 
send  forth  the 
promise  of  my 
Father  upon 
you :  but  tarry 
ye  in  the  city, 
until  ye  be 
clothed  with 
power  from  on 
high." 


Acts  i.  8, 4,  5. 

"But  ye  shall 
receive  power, 
when  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  come 
upon  you :  and 
ye  shall  be  my 
witnesses  both  in 
Jerusalem,  and 
in  all  Judsea  and 
Samaria,  and  un- 
to the  uttermost 
parts  of  the 
earth." 


"  He  charged 
them  not  to  de- 
part from  Jeru- 
salem, but  to 
wait  for  the 
promise  of  the 
Father,  which, 
said  he,  ye 
heard  from  me: 
for  John  indeed 
baptized  with 
water ;  but  ye 
shall  be  baptized 
with  the  Holy 
Ghost  not  many 
days  hence." 


If  now  we  separate  from  these  "  last  words  " 

the  elements  of  command,  we  see  that  the 

apostles  were  bidden  to  go,  from  Jerusalem  as 

a  centre,  to  all  Judaea  and  Samaria,  to  the 

22 


The  Principles  of  Apostolic  Missions 

uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,  into  all  the 
world ;  that  they  were  to  bear  witness  every- 
where of  Christ,  particularly  of  His  death 
and  His  resurrection,  and  of  salvation,  re- 
mission of  sins,  through  repentance  and  faith 
in  Him  ;  that  they  were  to  make  disciples,  bap- 
tize them  into  the  name  of  the  Trinity,  and 
teach  them  to  observe  all  things  that  Jesus 
had  commanded.  So  much  lies  upon  the 
surface  for  us,  and  must  equally  have  lain 
upon  the  surface  for  the  apostles. 

But  we  are  not  left  to  inference  upon  this 
point.  There  is  abundant  evidence  that 
these  parting  commands  of  their  Master  made 
a  deep  impression  upon  the  eleven,  and  be- 
came in  fact  the  program  for  their  subse- 
quent conduct.  Bidden  to  tarry  at  first  at 
Jerusalem,  we  find  them  waiting  there ; 
bidden  after  the  reception  of  the  Spirit  to 
go,  to  preach,  to  make  disciples,  to  baptize, 
to  instruct  and  train,  we  find  them  so  en- 
gaged, first  in  Jerusalem,  and  then  in  just 
those  ever-widening  circles  which  the  Saviour 
had  indicated.  The  record  of  all  this,  so  far 
as  the  eleven  are  concerned,  is  contained  in 
the  first  half  of  the  book  of  Acts ;  and  it  is 
worth  while   to  notice  how,  in  the  twelve 

23 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

chapters  which  compose  it,  the  words  of  the 
Great  Commission,  particularly  as  it  is  given 
by  the  author  of  this  book  in  his  "former 
treatise,"  are  echoed  and  reechoed.  "  Thus 
it  is  written,  that  the  Christ  should  suffer, 
and  rise  from  the  dead  on  the  third  day ; 
and  that  repentance  and  remission  of  sins 
should  be  preached  in  his  name  unto  all 
the  nations,  beginning  at  Jerusalem.  Ye 
are  witnesses  of  these  things."  So  ran  the 
command  (Luke  xxiv.  46-48).  Now  read 
Peter's  sermon  on  the  day  of  Pentecost. 
What  is  the  point  of  it  ?  It  is  that  the  death 
and  resurrection  of  Jesus  were  in  accordance 
with  Scripture  (Acts  ii.  31,  32),  and  that 
therefore  it  was  the  duty  and  privilege  of  his 
auditors  to  repent  and  be  baptized  for  the 
remission  of  their  sins  (ii.  38).  And  that  the 
apostle,  as  he  spoke,  had,  as  it  were,  the  very 
words  of  the  Great  Commission  ringing  in 
his  ears  becomes  even  more  evident  when  we 
compare  his  "  whereof  we  are  all  witnesses  " 
and  "having  received  of  the  Father  the 
promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost  "  (ii.  32,  33),  with 
the  "  Ye  are  witnesses  of  these  things  "  and 
'*  Behold  I  send  the  promise  of  my  Father 
upon  you "  of    Luke's    account.      Or  hear 

24 


The  Principles  of  Apostolic  Missions 

Peter  again  a  few  days  later,  as  he  ad- 
dresses the  multitude  in  Solomon's  porch : 
44  Ye  killed  the  Prince  of  Life ;  whom  God 
raised  from  the  dead ;  whereof  we  are  wit- 
nesses "  (Acts  iii.  15).  Or  listen  once  more  as 
the  same  apostle  replies  to  the  arraignment 
of  the  Sanhedrin :  "  The  God  of  our  fathers 
raised  up  Jesus,  whom  ye  slew,  hanging  him 
on  a  tree.  Him  did  God  exalt  with  his  right 
hand  to  be  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour,  for  to  give 
repentance  to  Israel  and  remission  of  sins. 
And  we  are  witnesses  of  these  things"  (v. 
30-32).  Or  hear  him,  finally,  as  he  addresses 
Cornelius  and  his  friends  :  "  And  we  are  wit- 
nesses of  all  things  which  he  did  both  in  the 
country  of  the  Jews  and  in  Jerusalem  ;  whom 
also  they  slew,  hanging  him  on  a  tree.     Him 

God  raised  up  the  third  day And 

he  charged  us  to  preach  unto  the  people,  and 
to  testify  that  this  is  he  which  is  ordained  of 
God  to  be  the  Judge  of  quick  and  dead.  To 
him  bear  all  the  prophets  witness,  that 
through  his  name  every  one  that  believeth 
on  him  shall  receive  remission  of  sins ' 
(x.  39-43).  In  view  of  these  utterances,  is 
it  not  manifest  that  Peter's  apostolic  con- 
sciousness was,  so  to  say,  saturated  with  the 

25 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

words  of  the  Great  Commission,  and  that  he 
had  deliberately  adopted  it  as  the  pro- 
gram for  his  whole  activity  as  an  apostle  ? 
And  have  we  not  the  right  to  take  what 
Peter  and  his  fellow-apostles  did  as  an  em- 
bodiment of  their  conception  of  what  their 
Master  had  bidden  them  to  do  ? 

What,  then,  do  we  find  them  doing? 
"  With  great  power  gave  the  apostles  their 
witness  of  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  "  (iv.  33).  "  And  every  day,  in  the 
temple  and  at  home,  they  ceased  not  to 
teach  and  to  preach  Jesus  as  the  Christ " 
(v.  42).  Here  is  witnessing,  teaching, 
preaching.  But  was  this  the  extent  of 
their  activity?  By  no  means:  multi- 
tudes were  converted  (ii.  41,  47,  iv.  4, 
v.  14)  ;  in  other  words,  the  apostles  "  made 
disciples."  And  these  disciples  they  bap- 
tized (ii.  41).  They  instructed  them  also 
(ii.  42) ;  formed  them  into  a  community  (ii. 
44) ;  provided  them  with  simple  forms  of 
worship  (ii.  42) ;  exercised  discipline  among 
them  (v.  1-11) ;  superintended  the  distribu- 
tion of  their  alms  (iv.  37) ;  as  occasion  arose, 
guided  in  the  establishment  of  the  diaco- 
nate  (vi.  1-6) ;  took  oversight  of  the  efforts 

26 


The  Principles  of  Apostolic  Missions 

to  evangelize  Samaria  (viii.  14ff.).  In  such 
fashion  did  the  eleven  "  begin  at  Jerusa- 
lem " ;  and  not  until  they  had  made  such  a 
beginning  do  we  find  Peter  going  forth  to 
Lydcla  and  Joppa  and  Cassarea,  to  Antioch 
and  Corinth,  to  Babylon  and  Rome. 

Turn  now  from  the  apostle  of  the  cir- 
cumcision to  the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles. 
We  have  right  to  claim  Paul  as  being  above 
all  else  a  missionary.  This  is  involved  in 
the  very  title  which  he  gives  himself  of 
"  apostle  to  the  Gentiles " ;  applied  to  a 
Jewish  Christian,  it  embodies  the  essence  of 
foreign  missions.  How  strenuously  Paul 
maintained  his  claim  to  apostleship  is  well 
known.  He,  as  well  as  Peter  or  John,  had 
seen  the  Lord  Jesus  after  his  resurrection, 
and  could  therefore  be  a  witness  to  that  great 
fact  (1  Cor.  ix.  1).  He,  not  less  than  they, 
had  learned  at  first  hand  the  great  facts  and 
doctrines  of  the  Christian  faith  (Gal.  i.  11, 
12).  How  full  and  accurate  his  knowledge 
was  we  may  gather  from  the  account  he 
gives  of  the  resurrection  in  1  Cor.  xv.,  or  of 
the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper  in  the 
eleventh  chapter  of  the  same  epistle.  We 
might  assume,  therefore,  that  among  other 

27 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

facts  and  teachings  which  he  thus  "  received 
of  the  Lord,"  the  Great  Commission  would 
have  a  place.  But  more  than  assumption  is 
possible.  We  know  that  Paul  was  aware  of 
the  Great  Commission,  for  he  received  it  in 
person.  It  was  repeated  for  his  special 
benefit.  Of  all  the  facts  of  our  Saviour's 
earthly  history  two  only  do  we  know  to 
have  been  made  part  of  the  personal  experi- 
ence of  the  thirteenth  apostle.  One  of  these 
was  the  resurrection  ;  the  other — and  this 
may  well  give  us  a  new  sense  of  its  impor- 
tance— was  the  command  which  Jesus  gave 
His  disciples  at  the  mountain  in  Galilee. 
The  form  in  which  Paul  received  this  com- 
mand was,  it  is  true,  slightly  different  from 
that  in  which  it  was  made  known  to  the 
eleven  ;  but  there  is  no  mistaking  the  iden- 
tity of  the  two  utterances.  Let  us  hear 
Paul's  own  account  of  the  matter  as  he  gives 
it  to  King  Agrippa  (Acts  xxvi.  16-23) :  "  But 
arise,  and  stand  upon  thy  feet :  " — such,  he 
says,  was  the  bidding  of  Him  who  met  him 
by  the  gate  of  Damascus, — "  for  to  this  end 
have  I  appeared  to  thee,  to  appoint  thee  a 
minister  and  a  witness  both  of  the  things 
wherein  thou  has  seen  me,  and  of  the  things 

28 


The  Principles  of  Apostolic  Missions 

wherein  I  will  appear  to  thee  ;  delivering 
thee  from  the  people,  and  from  the  Gentiles, 
unto  whom  I  send  thee,  to  open  their  eyes, 
that  they  may  turn  from  darkness  to  light, 
and  from  the  power  of  Satan  unto  God,  that 
they  may  receive  remission  of  sins  and  an 
inheritance  among  them  that  are  sanctified 
by  faith  in  me."  This  was  the  command 
which  he  had  received,  and  in  obedience  to 
that  command,  so  he  makes  haste  to  add,  his 
life  had  been  spent.  "  Wherefore,  O  King 
Agrippa,  I  was  not  disobedient  to  the 
heavenly  vision :  but  declared  both  to  them 
of  Damascus  first,  and  at  Jerusalem,  and 
throughout  all  the  country  of  Judaea,  and  to 
the  Gentiles,  that  they  should  repent  and 
turn  to  God,  doing  works  worthy  of  repent- 
ance. .  .  o  .  Having  therefore  obtained  the 
help  that  is  from  God,  I  stand  unto  this  day 
testifying  both  to  small  and  great,  saying 
nothing  but  what  the  prophets  and  Moses 
did  say  should  come;  how  that  the  Christ 
must  suffer,  and  how  that  he  first  by  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead  should  proclaim 
light  to  the  people  and  to  the  Gentiles." 
Could  Paul  make  it  more  plain  that  in  his 
own  esteem  he  was  first  of  all  a  missionary, 

29 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

and  that  his  whole  activity  as  a  servant  of 
Christ  may  be  accepted  as  his  interpretation 
of  the  work  of  missions  ? 

What,  then,  let  us  ask,  was  the  work  of 
Paul  and  to  what  end  was  it  directed  ?  Was 
it  the  widest  possible  proclamation  of  the 
Gospel  ?  A  recent  writer,  urging  the  evan- 
gelization of  the  world  in  this  generation,  il- 
lustrates the  feasibility  of  doing  so  by  the 
success  of  the  directors  of  the  Columbian 
Exposition  in  advertising  that  enterprise 
throughout  the  world.  He  says  that  in  a 
tour  made  about  the  time  the  Exposition 
was  opened,  he  heard  the  word  Chicago  in 
the  mountains  of  western  Persia,  in  the  heart 
of  Kurdistan,  on  the  Euphrates,  in  the 
mouths  of  old  women  on  the  slopes  of  Leb- 
anon ;  and  what  a  company  of  energetic  busi- 
ness men  did  in  eighteen  months  for  the 
name  of  Chicago,  the  Church  of  Christ,  he 
urges,  ought  to  be  able  to  do  in  thirty-three 
years  for  uthe  name  which  is  above  every 
name." 

Now  no  man  ever  labored  more  earnestly 
to  extend  the  knowledge  of  this  blessed  name 
than  did  Paul.  Paul  was  indeed  a  preacher, 
a  herald,  a  witness  (1  Tim.  ii.  7).    He  counted 

30 


The  Principles  of  Apostolic  Missions 

it  his  highest  honor  that  to  him,  less  than  the 
least  of  all  saints,  had  this  grace  been  given, 
that  he  should  preach  among  the  Gentiles  the 
unsearchable  riches  of  Christ  (Eph.  iii.  8). 
If   Christ  were   only  preached,  whether  by 
him  or  others,  whether  of  love  or  of  faction, 
whether  in  pretense  or  in  truth,  he  rejoiced 
and  would  rejoice  (Phil.  i.  15-18).     And  he 
was  solicitous,  also,  that  the  Gospel  should 
be  proclaimed  as  widely  as  possible.    Though 
he  could  say  (Rom.  xv.  19),  "  From  Jeru- 
salem, and  round  about  even  unto  Illyricum, 
I  have  fully  preached  the  Gospel  of  Christ," 
yet  he  was  anxious  to  preach  in  Rome  also, 
could  he  get  thither  (Rom.  i.  13),  and  he 
purposed  to  make  Rome  a  stepping-stone  for 
passing    into   Spain   (Rom.   xv.    23f.).     He 
made  it  his  aim  to  preach  the  Gospel  where 
Christ  was   not   already  named    (Rom.  xv. 
20);    he    had    always    in   his   thought   the 
regions   beyond    (2    Cor.  x.  16).     And  yet 
how  obvious  it  is  that  this  widespread  proc- 
lamation of  the  Gospel  was  not  Paul's  only, 
nor  even  his  chief  and  ultimate  aim  ! 

Nor  was  his  aim  merely  the  conversion  of 
the  greatest  possible  number  of  souls.  The 
conversion  of  souls  was,  it  is  true,  an  object  of 

31 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

intense  longing  to  him.  He  counted  himself 
an  ambassador  for  Christ  whose  business  it 
was  to  beseech  men  to  be  reconciled  to  God 
(2  Cor.  v.  20).  His  heart's  desire  and  prayer  to 
God  for  Israel  was  that  they  might  be  saved 
(Rom.  x.  1);  and  for  their  sakes  he  could 
wish  that  he  himself  were  accursed  from 
Christ  (Rom.  ix.  3).  He  became  all  things 
to  all  men,  that  he  might  by  all  means  save 
some  (1  Cor.  ix.  22).  His  converts  were  his 
hope,  his  joy,  his  crown  of  rejoicing  (1  Thess. 
ii.  19,  20).  But  we  have  only  to  compare 
Paul's  work  with  the  work  of  those  excel- 
lent men  of  our  own  day  and  nation  who 
make  it  their  specific  business  to  secure  con- 
versions— I  mean  those  whom  we  call  "  evan- 
gelists," of  whom  Mr.  Moody,  Mr.  Mills,  Dr. 
Chapman,  Mr.  Yatman,  may  be  taken  as  ex- 
amples— to  see  how  different  from  this,  and 
how  much  larger,  was  Paul's  work  as  a  mis- 
sionary ;  to  see,  also,  how  impossible  it  is  to 
explain  that  work  on  the  theory  that  the 
apostle's  purpose  was  merely  to  bring  about 
the  conversion  of  the  largest  possible  num- 
ber of  individuals.  Paul  preached,  indeed, 
and  he  longed  that  his  preaching  might  be 
the  means  of  salvation  to  his  hearers;  and 

32 


The  Principles  of  Apostolic  Missions 

God  honored  his  longing  in  making  him 
spiritual  father  to  a  great  multitude :  but 
Paul  accomplished,  and  was  manifestly  aim- 
ing to  accomplish,  something  far  other  and 
more  than  this. 

For  Paul  baptized  Ms  converts^  either  with 
his  own  hands,  as  at  Philippi  (Acts  xv.  15, 33), 
or  by  the  hands  of  his  helpers,  as  at  Cornith. 
For  when  he  writes  (1  Cor.  i.  14ff.)  to  the 
church  in  the  latter  city  that  he  thanks  God 
that  he  baptized  none  of  them  but  Crispus 
and  Gaius  and  the  household  of  Stephanas, 
and  that  Christ  sent  him  not  to  baptize  but 
to  preach  the  gospel,  he  does  not  mean  that 
he  neglected  baptism  or  thought  it  of  little 
importance,  but  only  that  he  considered  it 
subordinate  to  the  proclamation  of  the  truth, 
and  that,  in  view  of  the  factional  strife  which 
was  prevailing  in  the  Corinthian  church,  he 
considered  it  providential  that  most  of  its 
members  had  been  baptized  not  by  himself 
but  by  his  assistants. 

Paul  instructed  and   trained    his  converts. 

Read  his  address  to   the  elders  of  Ephesus 

(Acts    xx.    18ff.),   and    mark    his    solemn 

attestation    of    the    diligence    and    fidelity 

with  which    he  had   declared  to  them  the 

33 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

whole  counsel  of  God,  warning,  admon- 
ishing, and  in  all  things  setting  them  an 
example. 

And  how  came  it,  we  may  well  ask  in 
this  connection,  that  there  were  in  Ephe- 
sus  elders  whom  Paul  could  summon  to 
Miletus,  and  on  whom  he  could  lay  the 
charge  to  feed  the  flock  of  God  over  which 
the  Holy  Ghost  had  made  them  bishops? 
Recall  the  fact  that  Paul  made  it  his  rule  not 
to  build  on  another's  foundation  (Rom.  xv. 
20),  or  to  intrude  into  another's  territory  (2 
Cor.  x.  15),  and  that  therefore  the  arrange- 
ments which  we  find  prevailing  in  the 
churches  founded  by  him  must  be  credited 
to  his  authority ;  recall  also  what  is  written 
of  him  and  Barnabas  on  their  first  tour 
through  Asia  Minor,  that  "they  appointed 
for  them  elders  in  every  church  "  (Acts  xiv. 
23) :  and  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with 
another  important  element  of  Paul's  activity 
as  a  missionary.  He  organized  his  converts 
into  churches.  Indeed,  it  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  wherever  Paul  labored  as  a  mission- 
ary, except  perhaps  in  Cyprus  and  Athens, 
he  left  a  church  behind  him.  There  were 
churches  in  Lystra,  and  Derbe,  and  Iconium, 

34 


The  Principles  of  Apostolic  Missions 

and  Pisidian  Antioch  (Acts  xiv.  21-23,  xvi. 
1-5) ;  in  Philippi,  and  Thessalonica,  and  Cor- 
inth, and  Cenchreae  (Rom.  xvi.  1) ;  in  Ephe- 
sus  and  Troas  (Acts  xx.  7) ;  in  Colossae,  in 
Hierapolis  and  Laodicaea  (Col.  iv.  13-16). 
We  read  of  churches  in  Syria  and  Cilicia 
(Acts  xv.  41),  churches  of  Asia  (1  Cor.  xvi.] 
19),  churches  of  Galatia  (Gal.  i.  2),  churches' 
of  Macedonia  (2  Cor.  viii.  1),  churches  of 
Achaia  (2  Cor.  viii.  23,  24). 

And  the  Pauline  epistles,  particularly 
those  addressed  to  the  Corinthians,  enable 
us  to  understand  something  of  the  degree  of 
development  to  which  the  apostle  carried, 
or  sought  to  carry,  these  churches  which 
he  founded.  They  had  bishops  and  dea- 
cons. They  had  ordered  public  worship. 
They  observed  the  sacraments.  They  ex- 
ercised discipline  over  their  own  members. 
They  had  efficient  arrangements  for  the 
support  of  their  own  poor.  They  were 
able  on  occasion  to  cooperate  with  each 
other  in  sending  relief  to  the  Christians 
in  Judaea.  The  duty  of  supporting  their 
ministry,  the  right  of  the  ministry  to  such 
support,  was  acknowledged  among  them, 
though    in    some   cases  it    might  be   wise 

35 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

for  the  ministers  to  forego  their  right 
as  Paul  had  done.  They  were  already 
centres  of  aggressive  attack  upon  the 
heathen  about  them.  On  his  second  tour 
Paul  found  the  churches  of  Lycaonia  increas- 
ing in  number  daily  (Acts  xvi.  5).  In  his 
first  letter  to  the  Corinthians,  he  describes  (1 
Cor.  xiv.  23ff.)  the  convicting  and  converting 
effect  of  prophesying  upon  the  heathen  who 
should  come  into  their  assembly  for  worship. 
He  says  that  the  Philippians  were  partakers 
in  his  labors  for  the  defense  and  confirmation 
of  the  gospel  (Phil.  i.  7). 

Is  it  not  manifest,  as  we  read  the  Acts  and 
the  Epistles,  that  it  was  to  the  establishment 
of  such  churches — self-governing,  self-sup- 
porting, self-extending — that  the  whole  of 
Paul's  work  as  a  missionary  was  directed? 
Such  churches  were  the  units  in  which  he 
reckons  the  progress  of  the  gospel.  To  such 
churches  he  addresses  his  letters.  And  that 
which  constituted  his  heaviest  burden  of 
responsibility  was  his  daily  care  for  all  the 
churches  (2  Cor.  xi.  28).  Turn  back  once 
more  to  the  address  to  the  elders  of  Ephesus 
(Acts  xx.  17ff.).  Paul  knew  that  his  work 
at  Ephesus  was  finished.     He  was  going  to 

36 


The  Principles  of  Apostolic  Missions 

Jerusalem  ;  thence  he  meant  to  go  to  Rome, 
and  then  on  to  Spain  (Acts  xix.  21 ;  Rom. 
xv.  28).  He  had  the  witness  of  the  Spirit 
that  he  should  never  see  his  converts  in 
Ephesus  again.  He  could  not  but  be  deeply 
affected  at  the  thought ;  but  he  felt  no  ques- 
tion as  to  the  propriety  of  thus  leaving  them. 
They  were  an  organized  church;  they  had 
been  fully  instructed  in  Gospel  doctrine  and 
duty  ;  they  had  elders  set  over  them  by  the 
Holy  Ghost ;  and  now  they  must  stand  alone. 
As  the  Saviour  had  said  to  the  twelve,  "  It  is 
expedient  for  you  that  I  go  away,"  so  could 
Paul  say  to  his  converts  in  Ephesus,  "  And 
now  I  commend  you  to  God,  and  to  the  word 
of  his  grace,  which  is  able  to  build  you  up, 
and  give  you  the  inheritance  among  all  them 
that  are  sanctified."  So  he  bade  them  fare- 
well. 

Thus  have  we  followed,  in  the  light  of  the 
Great  Commission,  the  labors  first  of  Peter 
and  his  fellow-apostles  in  Judsea,  and  then  of 
Paul  in  Asia  Minor,  Macedonia  and  Achaia; 
and  what  is  our  conclusion  as  to  the  aim  of 
apostolic  missions  ?  It  is  that  the  aim  of  the 
apostles  was  the  establishment,  in  as  many 
and  as  important  centres  as  possible,  of  self- 

37 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

governing,  self-supporting,  and  self-extending 
churches. 

The  Motives  of  Apostolic  Missions 

Let  us  turn  now  from  the  question  of 
aim  to  that  of  motive.  When  we  ask 
what  were  the  springs  of  motive  which 
inspired  and  sustained  the  apostles  in 
their  work,  so  vast,  so  difficult,  so  fraught 
with  danger,  of  planting,  in  all  the  great 
centres  of  the  Roman  empire,  living,  self- 
propagating  churches,  we  must  remind  our- 
selves, first,  that  in  a  certain  sense  missions 
are  a  vital  function  of  Christianity,  are  in- 
cluded in  its  very  nature  as  a  glad  tidings,  a 
spiritual  and  universal  religion ;  and  there- 
fore it  might  have  been  expected  that,  with- 
out any  command  on  the  part  of  Christ,  and 
even  without  any  distinct  realization  of  mo- 
tive on  the  part  of  the  early  church,  an  at- 
tempt would  have  been  made  to  impart  to 
others  the  blessings  of  the  gospel.  The 
apostles,  after  the  resurrection  and  Pentecost, 
were  like  the  four  leprous  men  who  made 
the  discovery  that  the  Syrians  had  fled  from 
before  Samaria  and  left  behind  them  rich 
supply  for  the  famine  of  the  beleaguered  city. 

38 


The  Principles  of  Apostolic  Missions 

Their  news  was  too  good  to  keep.  "We  can- 
not but  speak  the  things  which  we  have  seen 
and  heard,"  said  the  apostles  (Acts  iv.  20). 
A  gospel  of  salvation — a  salvation  based  on 
the  finished  work  of  the  Son  of  God,  a  sal- 
vation conditioned  simply  on  faith,  a  salva- 
tion to  be  realized  by  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  now  poured  out — faith  in  such  a 
gospel  told  itself.  It  needed  no  express 
command  of  Christ,  nor  any  formal  vote  of 
the  church;  but  by  the  same  spontaneous 
impulse  which  led  Andrew  to  tell  Peter, 
and  Philip  to  tell  Nathaniel  of  the  new- 
found Saviour,  those  that  were  scattered 
abroad  on  the  persecution  that  arose  about 
Stephen,  and  indeed  all  the  early  Christians, 
went  about  preaching  the  word  (Acts  viii. 
4).  And  it  is  upon  the  basis  of  this 
spontaneous,  joyful,  almost  unconscious  wit- 
nessing that  we  must  explain  much  of  the 
wide  diffusion  of  the  gospel  in  the  apostolic 
age.  Made  light  in  the  Lord,  these  first 
Christians  shed  light,  made  salt,  they  im- 
parted their  savor,  not  so  much  in  response 
to  conscious  motive  as  because  they  could 
not  do  otherwise. 

But  the  sacred  cause  of  missions  would 

39 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

not  have  been  safe  had  it  rested  upon  no 
other  basis  than  this  inherent  tendency  of 
the  gospel  to  become,  as  it  were,  self-sow- 
ing. When  controversies  arose  within  the 
church  and  thus  drew  in  her  attention  upon 
herself,  when  persecution  arose  from  with- 
out and  the  very  avowal  of  Christian  faith 
exposed  to  death,  when  the  first  joyful  feel- 
ing of  new-found  treasure  had  passed  away, 
other  motives  would  be  needed.  And  such 
were  given,  and  it  is  plain  that  the  apostles 
realized  them  and  were  moved  by  them. 

And  the  first  of  these  was  obedience  to  the 
command  of  Christ,  Attention  has  already 
been  called  to  the  evidences  of  the  deep  im- 
pression made  upon  the  eleven  by  the  Great 
Commission,  to  the  repeated  echoes  of  it  in 
the  language  of  the  apostles  as  reported  in 
the  Acts.  The  sense  of  having  received 
from  Christ  a  definite  command,  of  having 
been  charged  by  him  with  a  definite  duty, 
appears  in  their  whole  conduct.  "  We  are 
witnesses  of  these  things."  "  We  must  obey 
God  rather  than  men"  (Acts  v.  29,  32). 
M  He  charged  us  to  preach  unto  the  people 
and  to  testify  that  this  is  he  that  is  ordained 
of   God  to  be  Judge  of   quick  and  dead" 

40 


The  Principles  of  Apostolic  Missions 

(Peter  to  Cornelius,  Acts  x.  42).  So  the 
eleven  explain  the  zeal  and  boldness  with 
which  they  proclaimed  the  truth. 

So  was  it  with  Paul  also  ;  it  was  because  he 
could  not  be  "  disobedient  to  the  heavenly- 
vision  "  which  he  saw  and  the  commission 
which  accompanied,  it  that  he  "  declared  to 
them  of  Damascus  first,  and  at  Jerusalem, 
and  throughout  all  the  country  of  Judsea, 
and  also  to  the  Gentiles,  that  they  should 
repent  and  turn  to  God  "  (Acts  xxvi.  19). 
So  strong  was  this  sense  of  acting  under  a 
divine  commission  that  he  seemed  to  himself 
to  have  been  created  and  saved  only  for  the 
accomplishment  of  this  one  work  of  preach- 
ing the  gospel.  He  was  "  separated  unto 
the  gospel  of  God,"  even  "  from  his  mother's 
womb  "  (Rom.  i.  1 ;  Gal.  i.  15).  God  had 
called  him  by  His  grace  and  revealed  His 
Son  in  him  just  in  order  that  he  might  preach 
Christ  among  the  heathen  (Gal.  i.  16).  He 
had  "  received  grace  and  apostleship  unto 
obedience  of  faith  among  all  nations  "  (Rom. 
i.  5).  He  counted  not  his  life  dear  unto 
himself,  if  he  might  finish  his  course  with 
joy,  and  the  ministry  which  he  had  received 
from  the  Lord   Jesus,  to  testify  the  gospel 

41 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

of  the  grace  of  God  (Acts  xx.  24).  There 
was  mighty  power  in  such  convictions  of 
direct  command  from  Christ.  As  long  as 
that  command  and  the  promise  that  went 
with  it  rang  thus  in  their  ears,  these 
first  missionaries  rose  superior  to  difficul- 
ties, hardships,  perils,  opposition  of  men. 
"Christus  vult"  made  them  heroes  to  attempt 
and  suffer,  and  clothed  them  with  a  noble 
persistency  to  which  victory  was  sure. 

And  not  only  obedience  to  Christ,  but 
love  to  Christ,  zeal  for  His  honor,  for  the  ex- 
tension  of  His  Church,  the  triumph  of  His 
kingdom,,  was  one  of  the  motives  that  under- 
lay apostolic  missions.  By  faith  beholding 
Him  exalted  to  the  right  hand  of  God,  they 
burned  to  see  Him  throned  in  the  faith  and 
love  of  men.  Sure  that  to  Him  belonged  all 
the  splendid  promises  made  in  the  Old 
Testament  to  the  Messiah,  they  were  filled 
with  holy  zeal  to  bring  about  the  fulfillment 
of  these  predictions.  Believing  that  to  Jesus 
had  been  given  the  name  which  is  above  every 
name,  they  could  not  rest  until  to  Him  every 
knee  should  bow.  The  eleven  "rejoiced 
that   they   were   counted   worthy   to   suffer 

shame  for  the  Name"  (Acts  v.  41).     Paul 

42 


The  Principles  of  Apostolic  Missions 

took  pleasure  in  persecutions  and  distresses 
for  Christ's  sake  (2  Cor.  xii.  10).  He  had 
but  one  ambition :  it  was  that  Christ  might 
be  magnified  in  his  body,  whether  by  life  or 
by  death  (Phil.  i.  20). 

And  Paul  was  moved  by  zeal  for  God  as 
well  as  for  Christ.     That  jealously  for  God's 
honor  which  made  him  at  first  a  persecutor 
was  not  rooted  out  by  his  conversion  ;  it  was 
but  purged  and  quickened.    And  thus  it  came 
to  pass  that  the  very  sins  and  idolatries  of  the 
heathen  were  fuel  to  the  flame  of  his  mission- 
ary impulse.     He  could  not  bear  that  men 
should  "  change  the  glory  of  the  incorruptible 
God  for  the  likeness  of  an  image  of  corrupt- 
ible   man,    and    of    birds,   and    fourfooted 
beasts,  and  creeping  things,"  and  that  they 
should    "  worship    and  serve   the   creature 
more  than  the  Creator  who  is  blessed  for- 
ever''    (Rom.    i.   23,   25).     His  spirit  was 
provoked  within  him  at  Athens  when  he  be- 
held the  city  full  of  idols,  and  realized  anew 
that   men  could   "think  that  the  Godhead 
was  like  to  gold,  or  silver,  or  stone,  graven 
by  art  and  device  of  man "  (Acts  xvii.  16, 

29). 

And  lastly  the  apostles,  Paul  in  particular, 

43 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

were  moved  to  missionary  effort  by  compas- 
sion for  a  world  perishing  in  sin.  To  their 
eyes  the  world  was  lost,  and  the  only  hope 
lay  in  the  gospel.  Jew  and  Gentile  alike  had 
sinned  and  alike  were  without  excuse  (Rom. 
iii.  9).  The  one  had  sinned  against  the  law 
and  would  be  judged  by '  it ;  the  other  had 
sinned  without  the  law,  and  would  perish 
without  it  (Rom.  ii.  12).  They  saw  men 
dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  alienated  from 
God,  without  God  and  without  hope  (Eph.  ii. 
2,  12).  The  Gentiles  particularly  were  liv- 
ing in  the  lusts  of  the  flesh,  were  obedient  to 
Satan,  were  steeped  in  foul  vices  and  idola- 
tries. And  against  all  such  ungodliness  and 
unrighteousness  of  men  the  wrath  of  God 
was  denounced — tribulation  and  wrath,  in- 
dignation and  anguish  upon  every  soul  that 
did  evil  (Rom.  ii.  9).  Jews  and  Gentiles 
alike  were  by  nature  children  of  wrath  (Eph. 
ii.  3).  And  from  this  divine  wrath  there  was 
but  one  way  of  escape,  and  that  through 
missions.  Only  if  they  should  call  on  the 
name  of  the  Lord  could  they  be  saved ;  but 
how  could  they  call  on  Him  of  whom  they  had 
not  heard  ?  or  how  hear  without  a  preacher  ? 
or    how    preach,    except    they    were    sent 

44 


The  Principles  of  Apostolic  Missions 

(Rom.  x.  13ff.)  ?  Beside  that  figure  which 
ever  stood  before  their  thought,  the  figure  of 
their  Master  with  outstretched  hand  that 
said,  "  Go,  preach !  "  they  ever  saw  another, 
with  hand  outstretched  not  in  command  but 
in  appeal, — the  figure  that  Paul  saw  across 
the  narrow  strait ;  they  heard  the  voice  that 
cried  "Come,  help!";  and  moved  by  divine 
compassion  they  hastened  forth  to  answer 
that  appeal. 


45 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  PEINCIPLES   OF  MODERN  MISSIONS 

1.     The  Aim  of  Modern  Missions, 

When  we  turn  to  modern  missions  and 
ask  what  their  principles  have  been,  we 
need  not  be  surprised  if  we  find  that  these 
have  not  always  been  clear,  definite,  and 
consistent.  The  apostles  enjoyed  a  special 
degree  and  kind  of  illumination  with  re- 
gard to  the  questions  involved  in  the 
founding  of  the  church  which  has  not 
been  granted  since  their  day.  The  modern 
answer  to  the  query,  What  is  the  aim  of 
missions?  has  been  attained  very  much  as 
individual  Christians  of  to-day  have  attained 
their  answer  to  the  question,  What  is  the 
aim  of  human  life?  False  scents  have  been 
followed ;  partial  answers  have  been  accepted 
as  full  and  final ;  subordinate  aims  have 
sometimes  obscured  the  principal  aim.  As 
in  every  other  department  of  life,  the  im- 
pulse to  action,  the  action  itself,  has  come 
first;  reflection  as  to  the  exact  end  to  be 

46 


The  Principles  of  Modern  Missions 

served  by  action  has  been  a  later  develop- 
ment. The  church  in  modern  times  has 
rather  felt  her  way  to  her  conception  of  the 
aim  of  missions  than  realized  it  distinctly 
from  the  start.  And  if  this  seems  to  be  a 
reversal  of  the  order  of  rational  procedure, 
the  answer  to  the  criticism  is  that  missions, 
for  evangelical  Christianity,  are  not  so  much 
a  rational  process  as  an  instinctive  and  vital 
one.  So  far  then  as  the  earlier  attempts  of 
modern  missions  are  concerned,  we  must  de- 
duce the  aim  of  those  who  made  them,  not 
merely  from  what  they  may  have  said  about 
it,  but  rather  from  what  we  see  them  to  have 
done  on  heathen  soil.  But  the  question  of 
aim  has  been  emerging  more  and  more 
clearly.  Since  Carey's  time  missions  have 
been  carried  on  by  organized  societies,  and 
men  do  not  organize  without  some  more  or 
less  definite  conception  of  the  end  for  which 
they  are  to  act  together. 

Now  it  may  help  us  to  understand  what 
has  been  the  real,  even  though  it  has  been 
sometimes  the  only  partially  comprehended 
aim  of  the  modern  mission  movement,  if  we 
look  first  at  some  recent  statements  of  the 
true  and  proper  end  of  missionary  effort. 

47 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

One  of  these  is  embodied  in  the  motto  of 
that  latest  development  of  missionary  en- 
thusiasm, the  Student  Volunteer  Move- 
ment. That  motto  is  "  The  evangelization 
of  the  world  in  this  generation."  Some 
time  since  there  appeared  in  the  New  York 
Independent  an  article  under  this  caption,  in 
which  it  was  urged  that  if  the  thousand  mil- 
lion people  outside  of  Europe,  the  United 
States,  Canada  and  Australia,  who  know  little 
or  nothing  of  the  gospel,  should  be  grouped 
into  companies  of  about  200,000  each,  and  a 
mission  manned  by  half  a  dozen  missionaries 
planted  in  the  centre  of  each  group,  "  such  a 
force  as  this,  assisted  by  native  Christians, 
could,  without  doubt,  in  the  course  of  thirty- 
three  years,  tell  again  and  again  to  every  one 
in  each  group  of  200,000  the  facts  and  mean- 
ing of  the  life,  death,  and  resurrection  of  the 
Son  of  God."  The  article  goes  on  to  show 
that  such  a  plan  is  practicable ;  that  the  men 
needed  would  be  supplied  by  drafting  for 
missionary  service  one  in  thirteen  hundred 
of  the  membership  of  evangelical  churches, 
and  the  means,  by  a  levy  of  a  quarter  of  a 
cent  per  day  on  each  member ;  and  that  the 
administrative  problem  of  dividing  the  field 

48 


The  Principles  of  Modern  Missions 

and  distributing  the  force  should  not  be  too 
great  in  this  day  of  vast  commercial,  military 
and  political  enterprises.  The  writer  of  this 
article  does  not  explicitly  claim  that  the  suc- 
cessful prosecution  of  such  a  scheme  as  he 
proposes  would  be  the  accomplishment  of 
the  missionary  work;  but  he  suggests  as 
much  when  he  says  in  closing  that  the  diffi- 
culties to  be  overcome,  while  the}r  are  stupen- 
dous, are  not  so  serious  as  the  sin  of  con- 
tinued disobedience  to  the  last  command  of 
Jesus. 

What  he  merely  suggests  has,  however, 
been  deliberately  avowed  and  strongly  urged 
by  some  earnest  friends  of  missions,  as  being,  if 
not  the  ultimate,  at  least  the  immediate  aim, 
which  should  take  precedence  of  every  other. 
Thus  the  accomplished  editor-in-chief  of  the 
Missionary  Review  of  the  World  defines  the 
purpose  of  missions  to  be  the  evangelization 
of  the  world  {Divine  Enterprise  of  Missions, 
p.  64ff.).  "  The  result  of  missions,"  he  says, 
"is  the  outgathering  from  the  world  of  an 
elect  church.  But  this  result,  while  it  is, 
of  course,  part  of  God's  aim,  is  not  therefore 
to  be  a  part  of  ours.  It  may  constitute  our 
hope  and  expectation,  but  the  aim  of  mis- 

49 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

sions,  so  far  as  the  church  is  concerned,  is 
the  world's  evangelization."  "  No  unbiased 
reader  can  examine  the  body  of  instructions 
given  to  the  early  church  by  the  Lord  Him- 
self without  observing  that,  first  of  all,  He 
meant  that  there  should  be  a  simple  herald- 
ing of  good  tidings,  accompanied  by  a  per- 
sonal witness  to  their  truth  and  power,  and 
a  consequent  making  of  disciples ;  and  then 
that  these  converts  should  be  gathered  into 
churches,  baptized  and  further  trained  in 
fuller  knowledge  of  divine  truth  and  prepara- 
tion for  service.  To  confound  preaching  and 
teaching,  evangelization  and  indoctrination, 
is  a  mistake  that  is  fundamental  and  initial. 
The  didactic  process  is  secondary  and  subor- 
dinate.  Nor  are  we  anywhere  taught  to  wait 

for  results We  are  both  to  look  and 

pray  for  results,  but  we  are  not  to  gauge  our 
fidelity  or  our  success,  or  our  Master's  ap- 
proval, by  the  number  of  converts;  nor  is  the 
herald  to  wait  in  any  one  field  until  conver- 
sion has  done  its  work  before  he  goes  to  the 
regions  beyond.  Without  an  hour's  delay,  for 
any  cause,  on  any  pretext,  save  only  to  re- 
ceive power  from  above,  should  we  who  be- 
lieve urge  on  this  holy  crusade  for  God  till 

50 


The  Principles  of  Modern  Missions 

every  living  soul  has  heard  of  Christ.  This 
gospel  of  the  kingdom  must  first  be  preached 
among  all  nations  as  a  witness,  and  then  shall 
the  end  come.  Whether  these  words  refer 
to  the  end  of  the  Jewish  age  in  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem,  or  to  the  end  of  the  gos- 
pel age  in  the  second  advent  of  the  Son  of 
Man,  or  to  both,  there  is  here  indicated  a 
vital  relation  which  the  general  proclamation 
of  the  gospel  bears  to  the  consummation  of 
God's  plan.  He  is  working  toward  an  end, 
and  that  end  is  conditioned  on  world-wide 
evangelism.  The  announcement  of  the 
gospel  to  every  creature  is  the  Zoar  to  which 
the  church  of  God  must  come  before  those 
grand  events  move  to  consummation  which 
at  once  bring  judgment  to  sinners  and  salva- 
tion to  saints." 

There  are  many  things  to  be  said  in  criti- 
cism of  such  a  conception  of  the  aim  of 
missions.  The  late  Dr.  E.  A.  Lawrence,  in 
his  book  entitled  Modern  Missions  in  the  East 
(pp.  35,  36),  summarizes  them  as  follows: 
(1)  It  ignores  the  time,  labor,  and  skill  re- 
quired to  present  the  Gospel  to  the  heathen 
as  a  mass  in  such  a  way  that  they  may  even 
begin  to  understand   it;   (2)  It  ignores   or 

51 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

decries  that  measure  of  responsibility  which 
we  certainly  share  with  God  for  fruits  of  our 
labor  in  conversion ;  (3)  It  ignores  the  aim 
of  Christianizing  the  world  as  well  as  evange- 
lizing it,  and  the  fact  that  this  will  be  best 
and  quickest  accomplished  through  Christian 
institutions  and  a  native  ministry  in  each 
land  ;  (4)  It  stands  in  the  service  of  certain 
premillennial  ideas  with  which  it  is  consist- 
ent, while  with  other  views  it  is  not  consistent. 
To  these  objections  I  would  add : 
1.  The  view  in  question  is  not  consistent 
with  the  Great  Commission  as  given  by 
Matthew.  In  order  to  make  it  appear  so,  it 
is  necessary  to  empty  the  expression  "make 
disciples"  (/xa^reuw)  of  its  meaning,  reducing 
it  to  a  mere  synonym  of  "preach  the  Gospel" 
(eua^eAc'Cw),  thus  explaining  the  larger  term 
by  the  smaller,  instead  of  the  smaller  by  the 
larger.  It  is  necessary,  too,  to  tear  from 
their  real  purpose,  as  explicative  of  the 
words  "make  disciples  of  all  the  nations," 
the  two  participial  clauses  which  follow — 
"  baptizing  them  into  the  name  of  the  Father 
and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and 
"  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  what- 
soever  I   have   commanded   you;"    and  to 

52 


The  Principles  of  Modern  Missions 

make  these  refer  to  another  and  later  pro- 
cess, which  is  not  to  be  so  much  as  begun 
until  the  Gospel  has  literally  been  proclaimed 
to  every  creature. 

-2.  As  this  view  is  inconsistent  with  the 
Great  Commission,  it  is  equally  at  variance 
with  the  example  of  the  apostles.  The 
writer  quoted  above  does  indeed  maintain 
that  the  primitive  church  not  only  deliber- 
ately "  undertook  to  reach  every  nation  and 
every  creature  with  the  proclamation  of  the 
gospel,"  but  that  she  succeeded  in  the  at- 
tempt, so  that  "  within  thirty-five  years  after 
our  Lord  ascended,  the  gospel  had  been 
carried  throughout  the  known  world  "  {Mis- 
nonary  Review  of  the  World,  1889,  pp.  482, 
485).  As  to  the  first  of  these  propositions, 
we  have  only  to  recall  what  has  already 
come  under  our  notice,  that  both  Peter  and 
Paul  made  it  their  business  not  merely  to 
proclaim  the  gospel,  but  to  baptize,  organ- 
ize, instruct,  and  edify  their  converts,  to 
ordain  elders,  to  order  the  administration  of 
the  Lord's  Supper,  to  exercise  discipline,  to 
rebuke  error,  and  in  general  to  establish 
stable,  aggressive  churches.  As  to  the  sec- 
ond, while  we  may  well  acknowledge  the  zeal 

53 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

of  the  primitive  Christians  in  making  known 
the  gospel,  and  feel  rebuked  for  our  own  slug- 
gishness, we  have  only  to  ask,  Where  is  the 
evidence  that  when  Paul  suffered  martyrdom 
the  name  of  Jesus  had  ever  been  uttered  in 
Britain  or  in  Germany,  not  to  say  in  India 
or  in  China  ? 

3.  This  conception  of  the  aim  of  foreign 
missions  is  not  that  which  has  inspired  mod- 
ern missionary  endeavor  and  been  embod- 
ied in  it.  Whether  we  think  of  Eliot  and 
Brainerd  among  the  Indians,  of  Ziegenbalg 
and  Schwartz  in  Tranquebar,  of  Carey  and 
his  associates  at  Serampore,  of  Judson  in 
Burmah,  or  of  Morrison  in  China,  it  is  mani- 
fest at  once  that  not  one  of  these  pioneers 
was  actuated  by  the  purpose  merely  to  make 
the  widest  possible  announcement  of  the 
Gospel.  Every  one  of  these  godly  men 
shows  that  he  felt  himself  called  to  a  work 
very  different,  a  work  of  foundation -laying. 

Eliot,  for  example,  not  only  preached  to 
the  Indians  about  Boston  and  made  con- 
verts, but  he  organized  these  into  churches. 
He  went  further.  He  established  them  in  a 
settlement  of  their  own  at  Natick,  drafted 
for  them  a  constitution  based  on  the  laws  of 

54 


The  Principles  of  Modern  Missions 

Moses,  and  directed  them  in  their  building 
and  farming  operations.  With  almost  infi- 
nite toil  he  translated  into  their  tongue  a 
primer,  catechisms,  a  metrical  version  of  the 
Psalms,  several  works  on  experimental  re- 
ligion, such  as  Baxter's  Call  to  the  Uncon- 
verted, and,  to  crown  all,  the  Bible  itself. 
He  thought,  too,  that  he  was  fulfilling  his 
vocation  as  a  missionary  by  preparing  a 
grammar  of  the  Indian  tongue  for  the  use 
of  those  that  should  labor  after  him.  He 
lived  to  see  eleven  hundred  "praying  In- 
dians," organized  into  six  churches,  presided 
over  by  their  own  officers  and  served  by 
twenty-four  native  preachers.  With  these 
facts  put  the  conviction  which  he  expresses 
in  a  letter  to  Increase  Mather,  that  "  God  is 
wont  ordinarily  to  convert  nations  and  peo- 
ples by  some  of  their  own  countrymen,"  and 
it  becomes  clear  what  was  the  conception  of 
missions  which  dominated  John  Eliot. 

It  was  so  also  with  Brainerd.  No  man,  it  is 
true,  ever  burned  with  a  more  fervent  evan- 
gelistic zeal.  His  course  was  brief.  It  was 
only  three  years  from  the  time  he  began  his 
work  for  the  Delawares  on  the  site  of  the 
city  of  Easton  till  he  died  in  the  house  of 

55 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

Jonathan  Edwards  in  Northampton.  And 
yet  he  gave  part  of  that  time  to  establish- 
ing a  colony  of  Indians  at  Crosswicks  in 
New  Jersey.  Here  he  stimulated  them  to 
begin  agriculture,  employed  a  schoolmaster 
for  them,  and  twice  a  week  drilled  the  chil- 
dren in  the  Assembly's  Catechism. 

Ziegenbalg  and  Pliitschau,  the  pioneers  of 
the  Danish-Halle  mission  to  Tranquebar, 
while  they  were  zealous  evangelists,  were  also 
from  the  beginning  far  more.  They  opened 
schools,  set  up  a  printing-press — the  first 
mission  press  in  India — and  translated  into 
Tamil  the  whole  of  the  New  Testament  and 
part  of  the  Old.  The  work  was  completed 
by  Schwartz,  who  in  his  turn  translated  the 
Scriptures  into  Telugu  also.  Schwartz  was 
above  all  things  a  preacher.  He  believed 
that  preaching  should  be  the  chief  work  of  a 
missionary;  and  yet  he  thought  it  needful 
to  give  much  time  to  the  establishment  and 
maintenance  of  schools  and  to  catechising. 

But  as  has  been  already  intimated,  it  is  from 
the  time  of  Carey  that  the  modern  mission  en- 
terprise begins  to  be,  so  to  speak,  conscious 
of  itself  and  of  its  own  aims  and  motives. 
This  was  plainly  providential,  for  only  so 

56 


The  Principles  of  Modern  Missions 

could  organized  missionary  effort  become  pos- 
sible. We  see  now  why  God  allowed  the 
indifference  and  unbelief  of  Carey's  associ- 
ates to  keep  him  back  for  six  years  from  go- 
ing forth  in  person  as  a  missionary  to  the 
heathen.  In  those  years  of  prayer  and  study 
his  conceptions  of  the  work  to  be  done  at 
home  and  abroad  were  clarified  and  settled, I 
and  the  success  that  crowned  his  efforts  at 
last  was  the  success  that  so  often  comes  to  an 
earnest  man  who  has  thought  through  a  diffi- 
cult problem.  The  resolution  taken  by  the 
Baptist  Ministers'  Meeting  at  Kettering  was 
taken  "  agreeably  to  what  is  recommended  in 
Brother  Carey's  late  publication  "  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  propagation  of  the  gospel  among 
the  heathen.  "  Brother  Carey's  late  publica- 
tion "  was  his  famous  Enquiry  into  the  Obli- 
gations of  Christians  to  use  Means  for  the 
Conversion  of  the  Heathens.  In  that  treatise 
Carey  thus  outlines  his  conception  of  the 
work  missionaries  are  called  to  do  :  "  They 
must  take  every  opportunity  of  doing  them 
[t.  e.j  the  heathen]  good,  and  laboring  and 
traveling  night  and  day,  they  must  instruct, 
exhort,  and  rebuke  with  all  long-suffering  and 
anxious  desire  for  them,  and  above  all  must 

57 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

be  instant  in  prayer  for  the  effusion  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  upon  the  people  of  their  charge. 
It  might  likewise  be  of  importance,  if  God 
should  bless  their  labors,  for  them  to  encour- 
age any  appearances  of  gifts  amongst  the 
people  of  their  charge ;  if  such  should  be 
raised  up,  many  advantages  would  be  derived 
from  their  knowledge  of  the  language  and 
customs  of  their  countrymen;  and  their 
change  of  conduct  would  give  great  weight 
to  their  ministrations  "  (Smith's  Life  of  Wil- 
liam Carey,  pp.  39,  40). 

In  the  "  Form  of  Agreement"  entered  into 
by  the  missionaries  at  Serampore  in  1805, 
when  Carey  had  been  eleven  years  in  India 
and  had  for  five  years  been  associated  with 
Marshman  and  Ward,  the  aims  which  these 
devoted  men  had  in  view  are  more  fully  set 
forth.  After  binding  themselves  to  strive 
after  a  right  estimate  of  the  value  of  the  soul 
and  a  due  sense  of  the  needs  of  the  heathen 
around  them  ;  to  use  all  diligence,  on  the  one 
hand,  in  acquainting  themselves  with  the 
religious  views  of  the  natives,  and,  on  the 
other,  in  avoiding  every  ground  of  needless 
offense ;    to   improve    every   opportunity   of 

presenting   the    truth,  and   to  make   Christ 

58 


The  Principles  of  Modern  Missions 

crucified  the  great  theme  of  their  preaching, 
they  add:  "Another  important  part  of  our 
work  is  to  build  up,  and  watch  over,  the 
souls  that  may  be  gathered,  to  press  the  great 
principles  of  the  gospel  upon  the  minds  of 
the  converts  until  they  be  thoroughly  settled 
and  grounded  in  the  foundation  of  their  hope 
toward  God.  We  must  be  willing  to  spend 
some  time  with  them  daily,  if  possible,  in 
this  work.  We  must  have  much  patience 
with  them,  though  they  may  grow  very 
slowly  in  the  divine  knowledge An- 
other part  of  our  work  is  the  forming  of  the 
native  brethren  to  usefulness,  fostering  every 
kind  of  genius  and  cherishing  every  gift  and 
grace  in  them.  In  this  respect  we  can 
scarcely  be  too  lavish  of  our  attention  to 
their  improvement.  It  is  only  by  means  of 
native  preachers  that  we  can  hope  for  the 
universal  spread  of  the  gospel  throughout 
this  immense  continent.  It  is  absolute  duty 
to   cherish   native    gifts   and   send  forth  as 

many  native  preachers  as  possible Still 

further  to  strengthen  the  cause  of  Christ  in 
this  country,  and,  as  far  as  in  our  power,  to 
give  it  permanent  establishment,  even  when 

the  efforts  of  Europeans  may  fail,  we  think 

59 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

it  our  duty,  as  soon  as  possible,  to  advise  the 
native  brethren  who  may  be  formed  into 
separate  churches,  to  choose  their  pastors 
and  deacons  from  among  their  own  country- 
men, that  the  word  may  be  statedly  preached 
and  the  ordinances  administered  in  every 
church  by  the  native  minister,  as  much  as 
possible,  without  the  interference  of  the 
missionary  of  the  district,  who  will  con- 
stantly superintend  their  affairs,  give  them 
advice  in  cases  of  order  and  discipline,  and 
correct  any  errors  into  which  they  may  fall, 
and  who,  joying  and  beholding  their  order 
and  the  steadfastness  of  their  faith,  may 
direct  his  efforts  continually  to  the  planting 
of  new  churches  in  other  places,  and  to  the 
spread  of  the  gospel  throughout  his  district 

as  much  as  is  in  his  power Under  the 

divine  blessing,  if,  in  the  course  of  a  few 
years,  a  number  of  native  churches  be  thus 
established,  from  them  the  word  of  God  may 
sound  out  even  to  the  extremities  of  India, 
and  numbers  of  preachers  being  raised  up, 
may  form  a  body  of  native  missionaries 
inured  to  the  climate,  acquainted  with  the 
customs,   language,   modes   of    speech,   and 

reasoning  of  the  inhabitants ;  able  to  become 

60 


The  Principles  of  Modern  Missions 

perfectly  familiar  with  them,  to  enter  their 
houses,  to  live  upon  their  food,  to  sleep  with 
them  or  under  a  tree ;  and  who  may  travel 
from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other  al- 
most without  any  expense.  These  churches 
will  be  in  no  danger  of  falling  into  errors  or 
disorders  because  the  whole  of  their  affairs 
will  be  constantly  superintended  by  a  Euro- 
pean missionary.  The  advantages  of  this 
plan  are  so  evident  that  to  carry  it  into  com- 
plete effect  ought  to  be  our  continued  con- 
cern. That  we  may  discharge  the  important 
duty  of  watching  over  these  infant  churches 
when  formed,  and  of  urging  them  to  main- 
tain a  steady  discipline,  to  hold  forth  the 
clear  and  cheering  light  of  evangelical  truth 
in  this  region  and  shadow  of  death,  and  to 
walk  in  all  respects  as  those  who  have  been 
called  out  of  darkness  into  marvelous  light, 
we  should  continually  go  to  the  Source  of  all 
grace  and  strength ;  for  if  to  become  the 
shepherd  of  a  single  church  be  a  most  solemm 
and  weighty  charge,  what  must  it  be  to  watch 
over  a  number  of  churches  just  raised  from 
heathenism  and  placed  at  a  distance  from 
each  other?  "     (Smith's  Life,  p.  444ff.). 

Such  were  the  conceptions  of  the  Seram- 

61 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

pore  brotherhood  as  to  the  aim  to  be  pursued. 
That  they  kept  this  aim  steadily  in  view  is 
witnessed  by  the  whole  of  their  wonderful 
work  of  organization.  They  planted  stations 
northward  to  Assam  and  Bhootan,  eastward 
to  Burmah,  Java,  and  the  Celebes,  up  the 
Ganges  valley  to  Delhi,  and  across  the  pen- 
insula to  Surat  on  the  west  coast.  They 
created  schools  which  in  1818  numbered  one 
hundred  and  twenty-six,  and  contained  ten 
thousand  boys ;  they  made  a  beginning  also 
in  the  education  of  Hindu  women ;  and  they 
crowned  their  educational  system  with  a 
Christian  college.  They  translated  and 
printed  the  Bible,  in  whole  or  in  part,  in 
thirty-six  languages  and  dialects  of  India. 

Now  it  may  fairly  be  said  that  the  view  of 
Carey  and  his  associates  as  outlined  above 
has  dominated  modern  Protestant  missions. 
Judson,  for  example,  in  his  first  years  in 
Burmah,  said  he  would  die  content  if  he 
could  see  the  Bible  translated  into  Burmese 
and  a  church  of  a  hundred  members  gathered. 
The  American  Board  in  1856  declared  that 
"  if  we  resolve  the  end  of  missions  into  its 
simplest  elements,  we  shall  find  that  it  em- 
braces (1)  the  conversion  of  lost  men ;  (2) 

62 


The  Principles  of  Modern  Missions 

organizing  them  into  churches;  (3)  giving 
these  churches  a  competent  native  ministry ; 
and  (4)  conducting  them  to  the  stage  of  in- 
dependence and  (in  most  cases)  self-propaga- 
tion "  {Missionary  Tracts,  No.  15,  Outline  of 
Missionary  Policy,  p.  5).  Six  years  later 
the  Board  proved  its  convictions  by  with- 
drawing its  missionaries  from  the  Sandwich 
Islands.  In  1877  the  Church  Missionary  So- 
ciety in  a  Brief  View  of  Principles  (quoted 
by  Dr.  Theodor  Christlieb  in  his  Protestant 
Foreign  Missions,  p.  63)  said  :  "  All  evange- 
listic efforts  are  to  aim,  first  at  the  conversion 
of  individual  souls,  and,  secondly,  though 
contemporaneously,  at  the  organization  of  the 
permanent  native  church,  self-supporting, 
self-governing,  self-extending."  In  1880  Dr. 
Christlieb  himself  wrote  (Protestant  Foreign 
Missions,  p.  63) :  "  The  important  question 
whether  the  object  of  a  mission  should  be 
simply  the  conversion  of  individuals  or  the 
Christianization  of  whole  nations,  will  be, 
nay  is  already,  decided  from  the  practice  and 
experience  of  all  the  present  societies,  as 
well  as  in  the  history  of  missions  during  the 
first  century.     It  is  not  a  question  here  as  to 

this  or  that,  but  as  to  one  after  the  other. 

63 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

According  to  the  apostolic  example,  the 
whole  spirit  and  character  of  a  people 
brought  under  Christian  influence  must  be 
cleansed,  renewed,  and  fructified,  through 
the  conversion  of  one  individual  after  an- 
other, if  the  leavening  power  of  the  gospel 
is  to  permeate  public  and  social  life.  But 
for  this  process,  the  only  sure  and  solid  basis 
lies  in  the  formation  of  individual  churches 
of  believers,  as  centres  of  new  light  and  life 
from  God,  '  well-rooms '  of  regenerating 
power  for  the  whole  people."  In  January, 
1893,  the  first  "  Interdenominational  Confer- 
ence of  Foreign  Missionary  Boards  and  So- 
cieties in  the  United  States  and  Canada " 
was  held  in  New  York  city,  a  conference  at 
which  were  present  sixty-eight  missionaries 
and  officers  of  mission  boards,  representing 
twenty-three  societies.  At  this  conference 
one  of  the  secretaries  of  the  American  Board 
concluded  a  paper  on  "  The  Relative  Impor- 
tance of  Evangelistic  Work  in  Relation  to 
other  Forms  of  Effort "  with  the  following 
statement,  which,  so  far  from  being  chal- 
lenged, was  rather  confirmed  by  each  of 
seven  speakers  who  took  part  in  the  ensuing 
discussion :     "  The    first,   the    deepest,   the 

64 


The  Principles  of  Modern  Missions 

most  enduring  purpose  of  all  missionary 
work  is  to  bring  the  gospel  home  to  human 
hearts  and  lives  and  to  develop  self-support- 
ing and  self-directing  churches  who  will  ex- 
tend this  blessing  until  all  nations  are  full  of 
the  knowledge  and  faith  of  Jesus  Christ.  All 
forms  of  labor  are  subservient  to  this  end, 
and  when  it  is  reached  the  work  is  done  " 
(Report of 'First  Inter denominationa I  Conference^ 
etc.,  p.  36). 

#.     The  Motives  of  Modern  Missions. 

Coming  now  to  the  question  of  motive,  it 
will  need  but  little  argument  to  make  it  plain 
that  those  considerations,  which,  as  we  saw 
in  the  preceding  chapter,  inspired  the 
apostles — regard  for  the  command  of  Christ, 
love  to  Christ  and  zeal  for  His  honor  and 
for  the  glory  of  God  in  Christ,  and  com- 
passion for  perishing  souls — have  also  been, 
and  are  to-day,  the  great  springs  of  the  mod- 
ern missionary  enterprise.  However  the 
pioneers  of  that  enterprise  were  misunder- 
stood and  misinterpreted  by  their  fellows — 
and  there  have  never  been  lacking  successors 
of  those  who  accused  John  Eliot  of  being 
actuated  by  personal  ambition,  or  looked  on 

65 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

Carey  as  Festus  did  on  Paul,  as  beside  him- 
self— yet  they  themselves  had  the  testimony 
of  a  good  conscience  as  to  their  motives. 
Let  them  answer  for  themselves :  "  God," 
said  Eliot,  "  first  put  into  my  heart  a  com- 
passion for  the  poor  souls  of  these  Indians 
and  a  desire  to  teach  them  to  know  Christ 
and  to  bring  them  into  His  kingdom."  "Be 
thou  mine,  Lord  Jesus,  and  I  will  be  thine," 
was  the  prayer  and  vow  of  Zinzendorf  as  a 
child.  "  I  have  but  one  passion ;  it  is  He, 
He  alone,"  was  the  motto  of  his  manhood. 
11  Is  not  the  command  given  to  the  apostles 
to  teach  all  nations  obligatory  on  all  succeed- 
ing generations  of  ministers,  seeing  that  the 
accompanying  promise  is  of  equal  extent  ?  " 
— this  was  the  question  which  Carey  pro- 
posed for  discussion  by  the  Baptist  Minis- 
ters' Meeting  at  Northampton  in  1786,  and 
which  brought  upon  him  the  rebuke  of  the 
chairman,  that  he  was  "  a  miserable  enthusi- 
ast for  asking  such  a  question." 

"  The  importance  of  spending  our  time  for 
God  alone,"  so  Carey  wrote  to  his  father, 
when  announcing  his  resolve  to  go  to  India, 
"is  the  principal  theme  of  the  Gospel.     To 

be  devoted  like  a  sacrifice  to  holy  uses  is  the 

66 


The  Principles  of  Modern  Missions 

great  business  of  a  Christian.  I  consider 
myself  as  devoted  to  the  service  of  God 
alone,  and  now  I  am  to  realize  my  profes- 
sions "  (Smith's  Life  of  William  Carey,  p.  61). 

"  In  order  to  be  prepared  for  our  great  and 
solemn  work,"  so  ran  the  first  article  of  the 
famous  Serampore  Agreement,  "  it  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  that  we  set  an  infinite  value 
upon  immortal  souls ;  that  we  often  endeavor 
to  affect  our  minds  with  the  dreadful  loss 
sustained  by  an  unconverted  soul  launched 
into  eternity.  It  becomes  us  to  fix  in  our 
minds  the  awful  doctrine  of  eternal  punish- 
ment, and  to  realize  frequently  the  incon- 
ceivably awful  condition  of  this  vast  country, 

lying  in  the  arms  of  the  wicked  one 

We  are  apt  to  relax  our  exertions  in  a  warm 
climate,  but  we  shall  do  well  to  fix  it  always 
in  our  minds  that  all  around  us  are  perishing, 
and  that  we  incur  a  dreadful  woe  if  we  pro- 
claim not  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation'* 
{Ibid,  p.  442). 

"  Some  one  asked  me  not  long  ago,"  said 
Judson,  in  an  address  delivered  in  this  coun- 
try, "whether  faith  or  love  influenced  me 
most  in  going  to  the  heathen.  I  thought  of 
it  awhile,  and  at  length  concluded  that  there 

67 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

was  in  me  but  little  of  either.  But  in  think- 
ing of  what  did  influence  me,  I  remembered 
a  time,  out  in  the  woods  back  of  Andover 
Seminary,  when  I  was  almost  disheartened. 
Everything  looked  dark.  No  one  had  gone 
out  from  this  country.  The  way  was  not 
open.  The  field  was  far  distant,  and  in  an 
unhealthy  climate.  I  knew  not  what  to  do. 
All  at  once  that  "last  command"  seemed  to 
come  to  my  heart  directly  from  heaven.  I 
could  doubt  no  longer,  but  determined  on 
the  spot  to  obey  it  at  all  hazards  for  the  sake 
of  pleasing  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ "  {Life  of 
Adoniram  Judsony  by  his  son  Edward  Jud- 
son,  p.  474).  "  May  God  forgive  all  those 
who  forsake  us  in  our  extremity,"  wrote  the 
same  great  missionary,  at  the  close  of  an  ap- 
peal for  new  men  for  Burmah.  "  May  He 
save  them  all.  But  surely,  if  any  sin  will 
lie  with  crushing  weight  on  the  trembling, 
shrinking  soul,  when  grim  death  draws  near; 
if  any  sin  will  clothe  the  brow  of  the  final 
Judge  with  an  angry  frown,  withering  up 
the  last  hope  of  the  condemned  in  irremedi- 
able, everlasting  despair,  it  is  the  sin  of  turn- 
ing a  deaf  ear  to  the  plaintive  cry  of  ten  mil- 
lions of  immortal  beings,  who  by  their  dark- 

68 


The  Principles  of  Modern  Missions 

ness  and  misery,  cry  day  and  night,  'Come  to 
our  rescue,  ye  bright  sons  and  daughters  of 
America;  come  and  save  us,  for  we  are  sink- 
ing into  hell!"'  {Ibid.,  p.  310). 

"  It  is  something  to  be  a  missionary,"  says 
Livingstone  in  his  Missionary  Sacrifices,  "it 
is  something  to  be  a  follower,  however  feeble, 
in  the  wake  of  the  Great  Teacher  and  only 
Model  Missionary  that  has  ever  appeared 
among  men  ;  and  now  that  He  is  Head  over 
all  things,  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords, 
what  commission  is  equal  to  that  which  the 
missionary  holds  from  Him  ?  .  .  .  .  The  mis- 
sionary is  a  harbinger  of  the  good  time  com- 
ing. When  he  preaches  the  gospel  to  a 
tribe  which  has  long  sat  in  darkness,  the 
signs  of  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man  are 
displayed.  The  glorious  Sun  of  Righteous- 
ness is  near  the  horizon.  He  is  the  herald 
of  the  dawn,  for  come  He  will  whose  right  it 
is  to  reign,  and  what  a  prospect  appears 
when  we  think  of  the  golden  age  which  has 
not  been,  but  yet  must  come  !  Messiah  has 
sat  on  the  Hill  of  Zion  for  eighteen  hundred 
years.  He  has  long  been  expecting  that  His 
enemies  shall  be  made  His  footstool;  and 
may  not  we   expect,  too,  and  lift  up  our 

69 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

heads,  seeing  the  redemption  of  the  world 
draweth  nigh?"  (Blaikie's  Personal  Life  of 
David  Livingstone,  p.  478). 

Whom  else  would  you  hear  strike  the  full 
chord  of  missionary  motive  ?  Would  it  be 
Duff  in  impassioned  eloquence  before  the 
Scottish  General  Assembly  ?  Would  it  be 
Mackay  from  the  shores  of  Lake  Nyassa,  or 
Gilmour  from  the  dust-swept  plains  of  Mon- 
golia ?  Would  it  be  Paton,  as  many  Chris- 
tians of  America  and  England  heard  him,  four 
years  ago,  turning  aside  from  the  most  thrill- 
ing story  of  perils  or  triumphs  to  utter  with 
melting  tenderness  the  name  of  Jesus  ?  Call 
whom  you  will,  and  still  you  will  find  the 
bond  that  binds  him  to  his  work  a  threefold 
cord — obedience  to  Christ,  love  to  Christ, 
and  love  to  men.  And  these  three  find  their 
unity  in  Christ  Himself.  "My  intercourse 
with  missionaries  of  all  kinds  in  all  coun- 
tries," wrote  Dr.  Lawrence  {Modern  Missions 
in  the  East,  p.  41ff.),  on  his  return  from  a 
tour  of  twenty  months  through  mission 
lands,  "  has  convinced  me  of  the  great  diver- 
sity of  their  motives.  They  vary  according 
to  temperament,  training,  theology,  environ- 
ment.    Men  come  to  Christ  from  different 

70 


The  Principles  of  Modern  Missions 

motives ;  they  go  out  on  His  work  with  dif- 
ferent motives  ;  there  are  motives  that  look 
Godward  and  motives  that  look  manward. 
But  all  are  but  varied  manifestations  of  the 
one  supreme  motive,  which  is  the  common 
source  of  all.  That  source,  the  motive  of  all 
motives,  is  the  great  theanthropic  impulse 
that  is  born  of  contact  with  Christ.  The 
main  source  of  missions  is  not,  strictly 
speaking,  in  any  motive  at  all,  but  in  a 
motor,  in  Christ  Himself  as  author,  operator, 
and  energizer  of  all  divine  vitalities  and 
activities.  Christ  is  the  one  motive  power. 
Not  the  command  of  Christ,  not  the  love  of 
Christ,  not  the  glory  of  God,  not  the  peril, 
or  guilt,  or  possibilities  of  souls,  no  one  of 
these  alone  is  the  great  constraining  force, 
but  Christ  Himself." 


I 


71 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  APOSTOLIC  MISSIONS 

In  the  two  previous  chapters  of  this  book 
comparison  was  instituted  between  apostolic 
and  modern  missions  with  respect  to  the 
principles  involved.  It  is  now  proposed  to 
make  a  similar  comparison  with  reference  to 
the  problem  presented.  The  problem,  be  it 
noted,  rather  than  the  problems.  For  by  the 
phrase  "  the  problems  of  missions"  is  usually 
meant  the  vexed  questions  of  missionary  ad- 
ministration at  home  and  abroad.  It  is  not 
problems  in  this  sense  with  which  we  are 
here  concerned,  but  the  problem,  what  we 
might  call  the  situation  with  respect  to  mis- 
sions, the  totality  of  facts  and  forces  which 
underlay  the  missionary  enterprise  and  con- 
ditioned its  success  or  failure. 

The  importance  of  the  subject  thus  defined 
is  obvious.  If  the  conditions  under  which 
nineteenth-century  missions  are  being  prose- 
cuted are  essentially  those  which  prevailed 
in  the  first  century  there  is  the  best  ground 

72 


The  Problem  of  Apostolic  Missions 

for  cheer.  Where  the  apostles  and  the  early 
church  succeeded  we  need  not  fail,  and 
everything  that  is  recorded  as  to  their  at- 
tempt becomes  at  once  useful  to  us  by  way 
either  of  encouragement  or  of  warning. 
But  if  the  mission  problem  of  to-day  is 
radically  unlike  that  which  confronted  the 
apostles,  then  we  are  cut  off  from  one  of  our 
main  sources  of  confidence.  If  we  are 
treading  an  unknown  path,  are  engaged  in 
an  untried  experiment,  then  the  strain  upon 
our  faith  and  courage  must  be  far  greater 
than  it  would  be  were  we  assured  that  our 
endeavor  is  practically  the  same  with  that 
recorded  in  the  latter  half  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. 

When  we  examine  the  problem  of  apostolic 
missions  it  resolves  itself  into  two  problems, 
which  we  may  call  the  external  and  the  in- 
ternal. Apostolic  missions  was  the  effort  of 
the  church  as  it  existed  in  Jerusalem  on  the 
day  of  Pentecost  to  propagate  itself  through- 
out the  world,  and  specially,  as  has  been 
shown,  to  plant  self-supporting,  self-govern- 
ing, self-extending  churches  in  all  the  great 
centres  of  influence  of  the  Roman  world. 
The  conditions  making  for  success  or  failure 

73 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

in  this  attempt  lay  in  part  without  the 
church  and  in  part  within  it.  Let  us  look 
first  at  that  which  has  attracted  most  atten- 
tion, viz.,  the  external  obstacles  to  success. 
These  it  would  be  hard  to  overstate.  Had 
the  Pentecostal  church  been  a  hundred  or  a 
thousand  times  more  numerous  than  it  was, 
had  its  members  been  in  any  conceivable  de- 
gree wealthier  and  more  influential,  the  diffi- 
culties of  the  primitive  mission  enterprise 
would  still  have  been  enormous.  These  dif- 
ficulties were  first  physical ;  they  inhered  in 
the  geographical  structure  and  extent  of  the 
world  even  as  known  to  the  men  of  the  first 
century.  If  only  the  Roman  empire  were 
considered,  this  stretched  from  the  Euphrates 
to  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  from  the  Danube 
to  the  cataracts  of  the  Nile;  while  beyond 
these  boundaries  lay  dimly  known  regions — 
India,  China,  the  northern  lands  where  the 
fierce  German  tribes  had  their  home.  For 
traversing  these  vast  spaces  no  means  were 
at  hand  for  the  ordinary  traveler  but  to  go 
on  foot  by  land  or  to  creep  cautiously  from 
headland  to  headland,  from  island  to  island, 
in  the  ships  of  the  time.  Then  there  were 
intellectual  difficulties  of  the  most  stagger- 

74 


The  Problem  of  Apostolic  Missions 

ing  sort.  How  should  all  the  mingled  peo- 
ples, with  their  discordant  tongues,  their 
diverse  customs,  their  different  stages  of  cul- 
ture, be  made  even  to  comprehend  the  gospel 
message?  And  how  was  Christianity  to 
force  its  way  against  the  dominant  philoso- 
phies of  the  time  ? 

But,  above  all,  there  were  moral  and  spir- 
itual difficulties  to  be  overcome  by  the  first 
missionaries.  It  was  not  a  clean  and  vacant 
soil  into  which  they  were  bidden  to  cast  the 
gospel  seed,  but  one  preoccupied  with  rank 
growths  which  would  dispute  every  inch  of 
the  ground.  Heathenism  was  in  full  posses- 
sion of  the  ancient  world.  While  God  had 
been  training  the  chosen  people  in  the  true 
religion,  He  had  suffered  all  other  nations  to 
walk  in  their  own  ways  (Acts  xiv.  16),  and 
they  had  used  their  liberty  to  erect  a  vast 
and  varied  structure  of  idolatry  and  supersti- 
tion which  threw  its  shadow  over  every  rela- 
tion and  interest  of  life.  How  pervasive  the 
influence  of  these  false  faiths  was  we  may 
learn  from  the  New  Testament  itself.  We 
read,  for  example,  that  when  Paul  and  Barna- 
bas had  healed  a  cripple  in  Lystra,  the  popu- 
lace concluded  that  Jupiter  and  Mercury  had 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

appeared  among  them  in  human  form  (Acta 
xiv.  8-13).  The  imprisonment  of  Paul  and 
Silas  at  Philippi  was  due  to  a  miracle  of  heal- 
ing wrought  on  a  girl  believed  to  be  under 
the  special  influence  of  Apollo  (Acts  xvi. 
16),  and  the  readiness  of  their  jailer  to  com- 
mit suicide  when  he  supposed  that  his  pris- 
oners had  escaped  (ver.  27)  was  no  doubt  a 
fruit  of  Stoic  teaching.  "When  Paul  arrived 
in  Athens  he  found  the  city  full  of  idols,  and 
in  the  market-place  philosophers  of  the  Stoic 
and  Epicurean  schools  encountered  him  (Acts 
xvii.  16,  18).  When  he  had  made  converts 
in  Corinth,  he  saw  that  they  could  not  attend 
a  feast,  buy  meat  in  the  market,  or  carry  a 
cause  before  a  magistrate  without  perilous 
contact  with  heathen  usage  (1  Cor.  vi.  Iff.,  x. 
23n°.).  In  Ephesus  his  life  was  put  in  peril 
through  the  fanatical  regard  of  the  populace 
for  the  image  and  temple  of  Diana  (Acts  xix. 
23fT.) ;  in  Colossse  the  truth  he  had  preached 
was  perverted  by  the  admixture  of  heathen 
error  (Col.  ii.  8ff.).  When  he  was  wrecked 
on  Malta,  the  islanders  interpreted  the  attack 
of  the  viper  as  a  proof  that  he  was  pursued 
by  the  goddess  Nemesis  (Acts  xxviii.  4),  and 
when  he  departed  on  his  way  to  Rome  it  was 

76 


The  Problem  of  Apostolic  Missions 

in  a  ship  which  was  under  the  tutelary  care 
of  Castor  and  Pollux  (ver.  11). 

We  know  from  other  sources  that  these 
and  similar  allusions  in  the  New  Testament 
to  heathen  belief  and  practice  are  only  inci- 
dental revelations  of  that  which  was  uni- 
versal and  all-pervasive  throughout  the  Ro- 
man world.  Go  where  one  might — in 
crowded  city  or  quiet  country,  in  the  shad- 
ows of  the  forest,  where  the  spray  rose  from 
the  waterfall,  on  the  mountain  top,  by  the 
seashore,  in  Rome,  in  Athens,  or  in  the  camp 
of  the  most  remote  legion  on  the  frontier — 
the  eye  fell  on  temples,  altars,  shrines,  votive 
tablets,  images  of  gods  and  goddesses.  And 
not  only  were  such  visible  signs  of  heathen- 
ism everywhere  discoverable,  but  heathenism 
made  its  influence  felt  in  every  sphere  of 
human  activity.  The  state  was  saturated 
with  it.  From  the  emperor  down  to  the  most 
unknown  legionary  not  a  man  could  hold  an 
office,  sit  as  a  magistrate,  testify  as  a  witness, 
cast  a  vote,  command  a  legion  or  a  century, 
or  even  draw  his  pay,  without  participation 
in  some  heathen  rite.  Social  life  was  no  less 
under  the  power  of  religion.  "Each  period 
of   life,  every  important   event,"  says  Uhl- 

77 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

horn,  "  was  celebrated  with  religious  services. 
.  .  .  .  There  was  the  goddess  Lucina  who 
watched  over  the  birth  of  a  child  ;  Candeli- 
fera  in  whose  honor  at  such  times  candles 
were  lighted ;  Ruraina  who  attended  to  its 
nursing;  Nundina  who  was  invoked  on  the 
ninth  clay  when  the  name  was  given ;  Potina 
and  Educa  who  accustomed  it  to  food  and 
drink.  The  day  when  the  child  first  stepped 
upon  the  ground  was  consecrated  to  Statina; 
Abeona  taught  it  to  walk  ;  Farinus,  to  lisp ; 
Locutinus,  to  talk;  Cunina  averted  from  it 
evil  enchantments  while  lying  in  the  cradle. 
There  was  a  god  of  the  door  (Forculus),  a 
god  of  the  threshold  (Limentinus),  a  goddess 
of  the  hinges  (Cardea).  There  was  a  god  for 
the  blind  (Cseculus),  a  goddess  for  the  child- 
less (Orbana).  'Even  the  brothels/  ex- 
claims Tertullian,  '  and  cook-shops  and  pris- 
ons have  their  gods.'  Every  household  festi- 
val was  at  the  same  time  a  divine  service ; 
each  class  had  its  gods  whom  it  invoked,  and 
from  whom  it  expected  help  and  protection 
in  its  work.  From  the  niche  of  a  rafter 
Epona,  the  goddess  of  horses,  looked  down 
on  the  stable  ;  on  the  ship  stood  the  image  of 
Neptune;  merchants  prayed  to  Mercury  for 

78 


The  Problem  of  Apostolic  Missions 

successful  bargains.  All  tillage  of  the  soil 
began  with  prayer.  Before  harvest  a  pig 
was  sacrificed  to  Ceres,  and  the  labor  of  fell- 
ing a  forest  was  not  begun  until  pardon  had 
been  supplicated  from  the  unknown  gods 
who  might  inhabit  it."  {The  Conflict  of  Chris- 
tianity with  Heathenism,  p.  31ff ). 

We  need  to  remind  ourselves,  also,  that 
this  complicated  fabric  of  heathen  usage  did 
not  sustain  itself  simply  by  the  force  of  cus- 
tom and  the  attraction  which  mysterious  or 
splendid  rites  have  always  had  for  supersti- 
tious minds.  Behind  the  temples,  altars, 
sacrifices,  ceremonies,  we  must  see  a  great 
army  of  those  who  were  in  one  way  or  an- 
other interested  in  maintaining  heathen  faith 
and  worship.  These  appear  also  on  the  pages 
of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  in  Elymas  the 
sorcerer,  himself  a  Jew,  but  representative 
of  a  host  of  heathen  of  like  occupation;  in 
the  magicians  and  silversmiths  of  Ephesus; 
in  the  priests  of  Jupiter  at  Lystra;  in  the 
owners  of  the  Pythoness  of  Philippi.  Types 
these  are  of  the  multitude  of  priests  and 
priestesses,  soothsayers,  diviners,  necroman- 
cers, augurs,  flamens,  vestals,  haruspices, 
fortune-tellers,  quacks,  artificers,  merchants,  . 

79 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

who  at  once  shared,  fostered  and  fattened  on 
the  superstition  of  the  age;  each  of  whom 
was  ready,  so  soon  as  he  perceived  the  an- 
tagonism of  the  new  religion  both  to  his 
faith  and  his  livelihood,  to  resist  its  propa- 
gation with  all  his  power. 

And  besides  all  these  private  enemies  of 
the  gospel  there  was  one  great  public  enemy. 
It  was  the  empire  itself.  Even  in  the  Acts 
we  see  the  first  flashes  of  that  storm  of  per- 
secution of  the  church  at  the  hands  of  the 
state  which  was  not  to  cease,  was  indeed 
scarcely  to  lull,  for  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years.  These  are  to  be  found,  not  in  the 
execution  of  James,  and  the  intended  execu- 
tion of  Peter  by  Herod  Agrippa  (Acts  xb'- 
1-3) — for  this  persecution  proceeded  from 
Jewish,  not  from  Roman  sources — but  in 
the  charges  brought  against  Paul  and  Silas 
first  in  Philippi  and  then  in  Thessalonica. 
"  These  men,  being  Jews,  do  exceedingly 
trouble  our  city,  and  set  forth  customs  which 
it  is  not  lawful  for  us  to  receive,  or  to  ob- 
serve, being  Romans  " — this  was  the  accusa- 
tion by  which  the  owners  of  the  demoniac 
girl  of  Philippi  sought  to  give  effect  to  their 
resentment  against  those  who,  by  casting  out 

80 


The  Problem  of  Apostolic  Missions 

the  demon,  had  taken  away  their  hope  of 
gain  (Acts  xvi.  20).  "  These  that  have 
turned  the  world  upside  down  are  come 
hither  also ;  whom  Jason  hath  received  ;  and 
these  all  act  contrary  to  the  decrees  of  Caesar, 
saying  that  there  is  another  king,  one  Jesus  " 
— this  was  the  cry  which  the  envious  Jews 
of  Thessalonica  put  into  the  mouths  of  the 
mob  they  had  raised  against  the  missionaries 
(Acts  xvii.  6,  7).  Two  indictments  are  here 
laid.  One  is  that  these  Jewish  strangers 
were  introducing  new  religious  observances; 
the  other,  that  they  were  guilty  of  offense 
against  the  supreme  dignity  of  the  emperor 
by  proclaiming  Jesus  as  a  king.  These  two 
charges  found  their  point  of  unity  in  that 
deification  of  the  emperor  in  which  the 
Roman  idea  that  it  is  the  supreme  duty  of 
the  citizen  to  live  for  the  state  came  at  last 
to  be  embodied.  In  the  Roman  view  piety 
and  patriotism  became  almost  synonymous. 
To  introduce  a  religion  not  sanctioned  by  the 
state,  to  refuse  to  honor  the  gods  acknowl- 
edged by  the  state,  and  especially  to  refuse 
to  worship  the  numen  of  the  emperor,  this 
was  impiety  and  treason  in  one.  It  was  be- 
cause in  this,  as  well  as  in  the  whole  founda- 

81 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

tion  upon  which  it  rested,  the  state  was  in- 
separably bound  up  with  heathenism,  that 
the  conflict  which  actually  arose  was,  as 
Uhlhorn  has  shown,  inevitable,  and,  when 
once  joined,  possible  to  be  terminated  only 
by  the  complete  triumph  of  the  one  party  or 
the  other. 

Side  by  side  with  this  opposition  on  the 
part  of  heathenism  there  was  another  which 
was  offered  by  Judaism.  This  was  in  the 
beginning  the  more  dangerous  of  the  two, 
because  more  intelligent  and  more  bitter, 
and  because  the  Roman  law  did  not  at  first 
distinguish  Christians  from  Jews.  The  tem- 
per, motives  and  methods  of  this  antagonism 
we  may  learn  equally  well  from  what  Saul 
of  Tarsus  did  from  Jerusalem  to  Damascus, 
and  what  Paul  the  servant  of  Jesus  Christ 
suffered  from  Damascus  to  Rome. 

But  the  battle  which  the  new  religion  had 
to  fight  was  not  merely  the  battle  of  truth 
against  error  strongly  intrenched  in  custom, 
vested  interests,  the  very  structure  of  the 
Roman  state,  and  the  zeal  of  the  Jews  for 
a  religion  which  they  knew  to  have  been 
divine  in  its  origin.  It  was  also  the  battle 
of  righteousness  against  wickedness,  of  holi- 

82 


The  Problem  of  Apostolic  Missions 

ness  against  sin.     When  we  study  the  Gos- 
pels we  find  that  the  Jewish  nation  at  the 
time   of  the  Advent  was    morally  corrupt. 
Along  with  scrupulous  attention  to  external 
religion,  there  was  pride,  hypocrisy,  untruth, 
extortion,  impurity.     But  if  Jewish  morality 
was   fitly  described   by  our  Lord's  terrible 
figure  of  the  whited  sepulchre,  heathen  mo- 
rality was  an  unburied  carcass.     In  the  Gen- 
tile world  iniquity  no  longer  took  pains  to 
clothe  itself  in  the  garb  of  outward  decency, 
but    stalked    forth    naked   and   unashamed. 
Extravagance,  luxury,  frivolity    among   the 
rich;    cringing    dependence  on  the  part  of 
the   throng   of  clients  and  hangers-on  that 
crowded  their  doors  and  clamored  for  "bread 
and  games "  ;    abject  submission,  which  yet 
often  masked  a  very  volcano  of  hate,  on  the 
part  of  the  myriads  of  slaves  that  were  every- 
where to  be  seen;   labor  despised,  counted 
unworthy  of  the  dignity  of  a  freeman ;  the 
self-respecting    middle    class    swept   away; 
utter  disregard  of  human  life,  showing  it- 
self in  the  terrible  punishments  inflicted  on 
slaves  for  the  slightest  offenses,  and  in  the 
unconcern  with  which   even  vestal  virgins 
looked  on  while  human  blood  was  shed  in  the 

83 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

amphitheatre  ;  marriage  dishonored  ;  purity 
set  at  naught  to  a  degree  which  cannot  be 
uttered  to  modern  ears ;  children  made  away 
with  by  strangling  or  exposure,  or,  if  allowed 
to  live,  turned  over  to  the  care  of  slaves; 
venality  and  intrigue  rife  among  all  the  offi- 
cial classes  (unless  exception  be  made  in 
favor  of  the  army,  in  which  outdoor  life, 
constant  campaigning,  and  military  devotion 
to  duty  served  to  maintain  a  higher  stand- 
ard)— to  say  that  these  things  were  charac- 
teristic features  of  the  life  of  heathenism  in 
that  age  is  only  to  repeat  from  the  pages  of 
heathen  writers  themselves  the  terrible  in- 
dictment which  Paul,  with  full  knowledge 
whereof  he  affirmed,  brings  in  the  closing 
verses  of  the  first  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans. 

And  while  there  were  these  elements  of 
difficulty  in  the  external  situation,  there 
were  also  serious  obstacles  within  the  church. 
Not  only  were  the  Christians  at  first  few  in 
number,  poor,  of  humble  social  station,  des- 
titute of  culture,  members  of  a  despised  and 
hated  race,  and  themselves  objects  of  con- 
tempt and  hatred  to  the  rest  of  their  nation 
but  they  had  very  imperfect  conceptions  of 

84 


The  Problem  of  Apostolic  Missions 

the  work  given  them  to  do.  They  did  not 
understand  either  the  simplicity  or  the  uni- 
versality of  the  gospel.  Many  thousand 
converts  had  been  made,  and  the  glad 
tidings  had  been  carried  to  Samaria,  to 
Antioch,  yes,  as  far  as  Cyprus,  before  even 
the  apostles  realized  that  repentance  unto 
life  was  possible  to  Gentiles  as  Gentiles. 
Indeed  Peter  came  to  this  realization  only 
through  the  coincidence  of  a  vision  from 
heaven  and  the  providential  arrival  of  mes- 
sengers from  Cornelius  the  Roman,  and  the 
subsequent  unmistakable  descent  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  upon  the  centurion  and  his 
friends ;  and  his  course  of  action  was  imme- 
diately challenged  by  a  party  within  the 
church,  which  till  the  end  of  the  apostolic 
age  continued  to  oppose  the  admission  of  the 
Gentiles  except  through  their  first  becoming 
Jews.  So  influential  was  this  party,  and  so 
strong  were  the  Jewish  prepossessions  of  the 
first  Christians  generally,  that  there  is  reason 
to  doubt  whether  the  Gospel  would  have 
been  freely  proclaimed  to  the  Gentiles  in  the 
first  century  had  not  God  raised  up  a  special 
apostle  for  this  very  work. 

Having  glanced  at  the  conditions  adverse 

85 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

to  the  missionary  undertaking,  as  these  were 
found  without  and  within  the  church,  let  us 
now  look  at  some  factors  that  made  for  mis- 
sionary success.  Paul  wrote  to  the  churches 
of  Galatia  that  Christ  came  in  "  the  fullness 
of  the  times"  (Gal.  iv.  4).  The  phrase  has 
always  attracted  the  attention  of  students  of 
the  New  Testament.  It  has  often  been 
shown  how,  with  reference  to  all  that  was  to 
precede  the  Advent,  that  event  took  place  in 
the  fullness  of  the  times:  how,  that  is  to  say, 
every  condition  named  in  the  prophets  had 
been  realized ;  how  every  note  of  time,  from 
dying  Jacob's  prediction  that  "the  sceptre 
should  not  depart  from  Judah  till  Shiloh 
come  "  to  Daniel's  prophecy  of  the  seventy 
weeks  found  its  precise  fulfillment  in  the 
reigns  of  Augustus  and  Tiberius ;  how  all 
the  blind  gropings  of  heathenism  had  ended 
in  failure  and  thus  made  the  world  ready  for 
the  appearing  of  the  true  Saviour ;  how 
Judaism  had  accomplished,  even  through  un- 
belief and  apostasy,  its  God-given  destiny, 
and  was  at  the  point  to  fall  as  the  blossom 
falls  to  make  way  for  the  fruit. 

But  this  "fullness  of  the  times"  was  as 
strikingly  manifest  with  reference  to  what 

86 


The  Problem  of  Apostolic  Missions 

was  to  follow  the  Advent  as  it  was  with  re- 
spect to  what  should  precede  it.  If  the  times 
were  fulfilled  for  the  appearance  of  the 
Saviour,  no  less  were  they  fulfilled  for 
world-wide  proclamation  of  His  gospel  and 
the  world-wide  establishment  of  His  king- 
dom among  men.  For  one  thing,  the  world 
was  physically  accessible  as  it  had  never  been 
before.  The  time  predicted  by  Isaiah,  when 
every  valley  should  be  exalted,  and  every 
mountain  and  hill  should  be  brought  low, 
and  the  crooked  should  be  made  straight, 
and  the  rough  places  plain,  seemed  now  to 
have  come.  The  Roman  legions  had  acted 
like  the  mighty  battering-rams  which  they 
were  wont  to  drag  up  to  the  gates  of 
beleagured  cities,  in  breaking  down  the  bar- 
riers which  in  earlier  times  had  separated  na- 
tion from  nation.  If  Rome  had  not  been 
able  literally  to  level  the  mountains,  her 
victories  had  compelled  her  to  construct  the 
great  roads  that  radiated  like  spokes  from 
the  golden  milestone  in  the  forum.  Where 
Roman  arms  had  triumphed,  Roman  law  was 
established,  and  under  its  protection  life, 
property,  labor,  commerce,  travel  became 
secure.     As  Rome  grew  in  power  and  wealth, 

87 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

intercourse  between  the  various  parts  of  the 
empire  was  greatly  stimulated.  Everywhere 
there  was  coming  and  going,  of  soldiers,  am- 
bassadors, prsetors,  pro-consuls,  merchants, 
pilgrims,  students,  teachers.  The  mere 
physical  necessities  of  Rome  herself  and 
the  other  great  cities  that  in  that  time  of 
peace  everywhere  sprang  up,  as  well  as  the 
demands  of  luxury,  fostered  a  commerce  by 
land  and  sea  such  as  had  not  been  approached 
or  even  thought  of  before.  And  this  free 
intercourse  of  nation  with  nation  wrought 
together  with  the  subjection  of  all  to  com- 
mon forms  of  law  to  bring  men  into  a  meas- 
ure of  intellectual  and  religious  tolerance, 
not  to  say  sympathy.  The  old  state  of 
things,  in  which  each  nation  looked  with 
suspicion  on  every  other,  and  clung  tena- 
ciously to  whatever  in  social  custom,  civil  in- 
stitution, intellectual  and  religious  habitude, 
made  for  separation — an  attitude  once  uni- 
versal, which  the  Jews  and  the  Chinese  have 
brought  with  them  out  of  that  ancient  time 
— this  old  state  of  things  began  to  give  way. 
As  the  nations  came  to  know  each  other  bet- 
ter, they  became  more  tolerant,  and  at  last 
even  assimilative,  of  each  other's  peculiarities 

88 


The  Problem  of  Apostolic  Missions 

of  custom,  institution,  faith.  Races  began 
to  be  fused ;  religions  became  less  exclusive, 
more  eclectic  and  comprehensive.  As  men, 
once  accustomed  to  remain  at  home  and  to 
worship  local  deities,  began  to  move  abroad, 
they  were  compelled  either  to  accept  new 
divinities  or  to  conclude  that  the  gods  whom 
they  found  in  new  lands  were  the  same  they 
had  been  wont  to  honor,  only  under  new 
names.  Jupiter  was  discovered  to  be  one 
with  Zeus,  Juno  with  Here ;  nay,  Isis  and 
Anubis  and  Osiris  and  Baal  and  Astarte 
were  found,  or  at  least  believed,  to  be  only 
local  names  for  familiar  inhabitants  of  Olym- 
pus. 

The  same  end — the  bringing  in  of  the  full- 
ness of  the  times  for  missions — was  being 
served  in  another  way  by  the  prevalence  of 
Greek  culture,  carrying  with  it  the  knowl- 
edge and  use  of  the  Greek  tongue.  Rome 
had  not  made  political  conquest  of  the  world 
until  Greece  had  first  established  her  intel- 
lectual supremacy.  Greek  modes  of  thought, 
Greek  models  of  style,  Greek  habits  of  life 
were  being  everywhere  adopted.  To  have 
studied  in  Greece,  or  at  least  under  Greek 
masters,  to  have  read  the  Greek  classics,  to 

89 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

be  able  to  compose,  or  argue,  or  declaim,  in 
the  Greek  style,  to  be  an  adherent  of  one  or 
other  of  the  schools  of  Greek  philosophy, 
these  were  the  marks  of  culture.  And  the 
•result  of  all  this,  and  particularly  of  the  wide 
acceptance  of  the  Greek  philosophies,  had 
been  to  undermine  polytheism.  Multitudes 
of  the  educated  had  already  lost  faith  in  the 
gods,  even  though  for  policy's  sake  they 
maintained  outward  deference  with  respect 
to  them. 

And  while  Rome  and  Greece  were  thus 
making  each  her  special  contribution  to  the 
preparation  of  the  world  for  the  reception  of 
the  gospel,  Judaism  was  also  making  hers. 
Once  uprooted  from  the  Holy  Land  by  the 
hand  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  Jews  had  be- 
come in  a  certain  sense  cosmopolitans.  Led 
by  their  genius  for  trade,  they  had  estab- 
lished themselves  in  every  quarter  of  the 
civilized  world.  Yet  they  had  never  become 
fused  with  the  nations  among  whom  they 
had  made  their  homes.  Cut  off  from  Jeru- 
salem and  the  temple,  they  made  the  syna- 
gogues their  centres  of  unity,  and  thus  every- 
where bore  witness  to  the  great  truths  of 
Old  Testament  religion,  which  were  at  the 

90 


The  Problem  of  Apostolic  Missions 

• 

same  time  so  large  an  element  in  the  gospel. 
Particularly  they  testified  to  the  unity  and 
spirituality  of  God,  to  the  hope  of  a  coming 
deliverer,  and  to  the  fact  of  a  divine  revela- 
tion. This  last  they  did  especially  in  the 
creation  and  wide  distribution  of  the  Septu- 
agint.  And  their  witness  was  not  unavail- 
ing. Amid  all  the  intellectual  doubt  of  the 
time,  the  acceptance  of  new  gods  and  new 
rites,  the  weariness  and  fear  and  sometimes 
loathing  that  was  begotten  by  the  moral 
corruptions  that  were  rife,  there  were  not  a 
few  men  and  women,  many  of  them  repre- 
sentative of  the  best  that  was  left  in  heathen- 
ism, who  were  attracted  by  the  simple,  spirit- 
ual worship,  the  purer  morality,  the  assured 
faith  of  their  Jewish  neighbors.  These  were 
some  of  the  things  that  justify  the  applica- 
tion of  Paul's  phrase  "the  fullness  of  the 
times  "  to  the  providential  preparedness  of 
the  world  for  the  diffusion  of  Christianity. 
These  were  some  of  the  ways  whereby  the 
wires  were  being  strung,  by  which  the  gospel 
message  was  to  be  flashed,  as  it  were,  in  a 
generation,  to  every  part  of  the  empire ;  or, 
ought  we  not  rather  to  say,  by  which  in  every 
part  of  the  vast  realm  of  moral  and  spiritual 

91 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

darkness  there  should  begin  to  be  the  glow 
of  gospel  light  ? 

When  we  take  up  the  Acts  and  the  Epis- 
tles we  find  on  every  page  illustrations  of 
this  marvelous  external  preparation  for  apos- 
tolic missions.  As  we  accompany  Paul  on 
his  journeys,  we  become  aware  that  he  is 
everywhere  following  those  great  military 
roads  which  Roman  political  foresight  had 
established,  or  those  lines  of  commercial  in- 
tercourse which  the  necessities  of  the  empire 
had  created.  Thus,  for  example,  Prof.  Ram- 
say of  Aberdeen  has  shown  that  the  vessel 
in  which  Paul  was  wrecked  was  a  corn-ship 
in  the  imperial  service  ;  and  it  has  often  been 
pointed  out  that  the  last  stage  of  that  mem- 
orable journey  was  over  the  famous  Via 
Appia,  along  which  so  many  lesser  conquer- 
ors had  marched  in  triumph.  But  even  had 
these  highways  by  land  and  sea  existed,  Paul 
could  hardly  have  used  them  as  he  did  except 
that  he  everywhere  found  a  measure  of  pro- 
tection at  the  hands  of  the  Roman  power. 
His  journeys  were  never  easy ;  hunger,  thirst, 
cold,  nakedness,  were  their  frequent  accom- 
paniments. They  were  not  always  safe ;  there 
were  perils  of  rivers,  perils  of  the  deep,  perils 

92 


The  Problem  of  Apostolic  Missions 

of  robbers,  perils  of  mob  violence  at  the  hands 
of  his  own  countrymen,  of  treachery  on  the 
part  of  false  brethren  (2  Cor.  xi.  25-27) ;  but 
hard  and  perilous  as  they  were,  they  were 
possible  at  all  only  by  the  help  that  Rome 
afforded.  If  he  was  beaten  and  imprisoned 
by  Roman  magistrates  at  Philippi,  it  was  the 
protection  of  the  Roman  power  that  gave 
him  liberty  to  carry  on  his  work  in  Corinth 
(Acts  xviii.  12-17),  and  that  saved  him  from 
death  at  Ephesus  (Acts  xix.  30-41)  and 
Jerusalem  (Acts  xxiii.)  ;  and  it  was  only  by 
standing  on  his  rights  as  a  Roman  citizen 
that  he  was  able  at  last  to  carry  out  his  long- 
cherished  purpose  to  preach  the  gospel  to 
those  that  were  in  Rome  (Acts  xxv.  12 ;  cf. 
Rom.  i.  13). 

It  seems  likely  also  that  it  was  from  Greek 
masters  in  his  native  Tarsus,  as  well  as  at 
the  feet  of  Gamaliel  in  Jerusalem,  that  he 
received  his  intellectual  training.  At  least, 
the  evidences  of  Greek  culture  appear,  not 
merely  in  the  fact  that  at  Mars  Hill  he  quotes 
a  line  from  a  heathen  poet  (Acts  xvii.  28), 
but  in  the  very  form  into  which  he  cast  his 
epistles.  In  every  city  that  he  entered,  the 
synagogue  furnished  him  a  pulpit  from  which 

93 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

to  sound  a  first  proclamation  of  the  gospel, 
the  Greek  language  a  medium  through  which 
he  could  make  himself  understood  by  both 
Jew  and  Gentile,  the  Septuagint  a  recognized 
Scripture  to  which  he  could  appeal,  and  the 
proselytes  a  prepared  soil  for  the  good  seed. 
The  synagogue  in  Antioch  (Acts  xiii.  14), 
the  "proseuche  by  the  riverside  at  Philippi 
(xvi.  13),  the  rock-hewn  Areopagus  at  Ath- 
ens (xvii.  19),  the  house  of  Titus  Justus  in 
Corinth  (xviii.  7),  the  school  of  Tyrannus  in 
Ephesus  (xix.  9),  the  steps  of  the  castle 
Antonia  in  Jerusalem  (xxi.  40),  the  audience- 
hall  of  Festus  in  Csesarea  (xxv.  23),  the  hired 
house  at  Rome  (xxviii.  30) — these  are  but 
symbols  of  the  way  in  which  it  had  been  made 
possible  for  Paul,  for  the  early  Christians 
generally,  to  subsidize  the  civilization  of  their 
time  for  the  proclamation  of  the  truth  and 
the  establishment  of  the  church. 

And  while  the  world  was  thus  made  ready 
for  the  missionary  work  of  the  church,  the 
church  also  was  being  prepared  for  her  mis- 
sionary work  for  the  world.  The  relation  of 
Pentecost,  not  merely  in  a  general  way  to  the 
life  and  power  of  the  church,  but  specifically 
to   her   missionary   activity,  cannot   be  mis- 

94 


The  Problem  of  Apostolic  Missions 

taken  and  should  never  be  forgotten.  This 
specific  bearing  appears  at  once  in  the  form 
of  that  final  promise  of  the  Saviour  of  which 
Pentecost  was  the  fulfillment,  "  Ye  shall  re- 
ceive power  when  the  Holy  Ghost  is  come 
upon  you,  and  ye  shall  be  my  witnesses  both 
in  Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judaea  and  Samaria, 
and  unto  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  " 
(Acts  i.  8) ;  in  the  fact  that  the  audience 
which  assembled  contained  representatives 
of  every  portion  of  the  civilized  world ;  and 
in  the  nature  of  the  miraculous  endowment 
which  accompanied  the  descent  of  the  Spirit, 
namely,  the  power  to  proclaim  in  foreign 
tongues  the  wonderful  works  of  God  (Acts 
ii.  9-11).  As  soon  as  the  resurrection  had 
chased  away  doubt,  and  Pentecost  had  brought 
enlightenment,  zeal,  and  spiritual  power,  per- 
secution scattered  the  disciples  abroad  through 
Judaea  and  Samaria  (Acts  viii.  1).  Then 
Philip  was  made  instrumental  in  bringing 
half-heathen  Samaritans  and  the  eunuch  from 
far  distant  Ethiopia  to  faith  in  Christ  (viii.  6, 
38).  Then,  while  Peter  was  meditating  on 
the  vision  that  made  it  plain  that  old-estab- 
lished distinctions  were  now  to  be  ignored, 

the  messengers  of  Cornelius  the  Roman  came 

95 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

knocking  at  the  gate,  and,  under  the  Spirit's 
guidance,  Peter  went  unto  men  uncircumcised, 
ate  with  them,  preached  to  them,  baptized 
them,  saw  them  endued  with  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  was  thus  prepared  to  champion  the  right 
of  Gentiles  to  be  admitted  to  the  church 
without  circumcision  (x.  1-xi.  18).  Then, 
under  the  influence  of  these  events,  some  of 
those  who  had  been  scattered  abroad,  them- 
selves residents  of  Cyprus  and  Cyrene,  and 
therefore  men  accustomed  to  contact  with 
Gentiles,  and  less  bitterly  prejudiced  against 
them,  when  they  came  to  Antioch,  ventured 
to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  Greeks.  God 
honored  their  faith,  and  a  great  multitude  of 
the  Greeks  believed.  When  this  was  reported 
at  Jerusalem,  the  church  there  sent  forth 
Barnabas,  also  from  Cyprus,  who  organized 
these  Gentile  converts  into  a  church  (xi. 
19-26). 

And  while  in  these  ways  the  primitive 
church,  under  the  guidance  of  the  eleven, 
and  of  Peter  in  particular,  was  being  led  along 
the  path  of  missionary  endeavor,  God  was 
preparing  for  himself  an  agent  who  was  to 
be  emphatically  the  missionary  apostle.  We 
have  the  highest  reason  to  believe  that  the 

96 


The  Problem  of  Apostolic  Missions 

original  members  of  the  apostolic  company 
were  men  of  unusual  native  ability  and 
strength  of  character.  With  respect  to  Peter 
and  John  especially,  we  have,  in  the  early 
chapters  of  Acts,  in  their  epistles,  and  in  the 
fourth  Gospel,  the  evidences  that  they  were 
princes  among  men.  In  the  contrast  about 
to  be  drawn  between  them  and  Paul  there  is 
no  intention  to  show  that  he  was  superior  to 
them,  either  in  intellectual  ability  or  in  no- 
bility of  character.  The  contrast  bears  upon 
a  different  question,  namely,  the  special  qual- 
ifications of  the  two  earlier  apostles  and  of 
Paul  respectively  for  the  work  of  missions. 
With  regard  to  these  Paul's  preeminence 
can  scarcely  be  denied.  Peter  and  John 
were  Jews  of  Palestine,  Galileans,  fishermen. 
There  is  no  reason  to  think  that,  when  Jesus 
ascended,  they  had  ever  been  farther  from 
home  than  a  visit  to  Jerusalem  would  take 
them.  Their  culture  was  that  of  Jewish 
peasants.  Whatever  association  with  their 
Master  may  have  done  for  their  intellectual, 
and  especially  their  moral  and  spiritual  de- 
velopment— and  who  can  estimate  what  the 
effect  of  that  association  must  have  been? — 
they  were  still  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  as 

97 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

on  the  day  when  they  had  been  called  away 
from  their  nets,  Galilean  peasants,  unfamiliar 
with  the  great  Roman  world  of  which  Pales- 
tine was  so  small  a  part,  intensely  Jewish  in 
thought  and  feeling.  With  them  contrast 
Paul,  also  a  Jew,  but  a  Jew  of  the  Diaspora, 
a  native  of  Tarsus,  capital  city  of  the  Roman 
province  of  Cilicia,  a  Greek  city  taking  rank 
for  culture  with  Athens  and  Alexandria. 
Here,  as  the  free-born  son  of  a  Roman  citizen, 
Saul,  who  in  accordance  with  Roman  custom 
bore  also  the  name  of  Paul,  spent  his  youth. 
How  much  he  must  have  seen  and  heard,  and 
even  participated  in,  of  what  went  to  make 
up  the  characteristic  life  of  the  time  will  be 
best  understood  by  reference  to  the  case  of 
those  who  as  the  sons  of  missionaries  have 
spent  their  childhood  in  China  or  India,  let 
us  say.  Do  what  missionaries  may  to  shield 
their  children  from  contamination  by  hea- 
thenism, they  cannot  keep  them  from  contact 
with  it.  Children  of  missionaries  learn  the 
language  of  the  country  often  before  they 
learn  English ;  they  become  familiar  with  its 
customs  as  perhaps  their  parents  are  never 
able  to  do ;  the  outward  aspects  of  its  life, 
industrial,  political,   religious  are  everyday 

98 


The  Problem  of  Apostolic  Missions 

matters  to  them  ;  and  if  God  leads  them,  as 
He  has  so  often  done,  to  take  up  the  mission- 
ary calling  themselves,  they  find  that  they 
enjoy  in  their  work  almost  incalculable  ad- 
vantage over  those,  no  matter  how  able  and 
earnest,  who  come  upon  the  field  for  the  first 
time  as  grown  men  or  women. 

But  Saul  did  not  remain  always  in  Tarsus. 
When  he  had  mastered  the  trade  of  tent- 
making — and  we  may  ask  whether  he  could 
so  well  have  supported  himself  in  Corinth  v 
or  Ephesus  had  he  been  a  fisherman — he 
was  sent  to  Jerusalem,  to  receive  his  Jewish 
education  under  the  most  noted  rabbi  of  the 
time.  Here  he  made  so  great  a  name  for 
ability,  piety,  and  zeal,  that  he  became  a 
member  of  the  Sanhedrin,  and,  when  the 
Christians  began  to  make  headway,  was  hon- 
ored with  a  special  commission  to  put  down 
this  heresy.  How  this  Pharisee  became  a 
Christian ;  how  this  persecutor  became  a 
preacher  and  an  apostle  ;  how  this  brilliant 
young  rabbi  was  led  to  use  the  training  he 
had  received  from  Gamaliel  in  proving  that 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  the  Christ  of  prophecy  ; 
how  this  traveled  Jew  from  Tarsus  came  to 
be  able  to  say  that  from  Jerusalem   round 

99 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

about  to  Illyricum  he  had  fully  preached  the 
gospel  of  God;  how  this  Cilician  tent-maker 
found  it  possible  to  live  a  year  and  a  half  in 
Corinth  and  three  years  in  Ephesus,  and  at 
the  same  time  make  the  gospel  he  preached 
without  cost  to  those  that  heard,  thus  put- 
ting himself  in  striking  and  favorable  con- 
trast to  the  self-seeking  Judaizing  teachers 
who  opposed  him  ;  how  this  favorite  pupil 
of  a  great  teacher  was  able  to  gather  about 
him  a  band  of  devoted  disciples,  whom  he 
trained  to  take  up  and  carry  on  his  work ; 
how  this  Roman  citizen  saved  himself  from 
being  scourged  unlawfully  by  Claudius  Lysias, 
and  secured  a  change  of  venue  from  Porcius 
Festus  to  the  emperor  himself ;  how  this  son 
of  cultured  Tarsus  was  able  to  dispute  with 
Stoic  and  Epicurean  philosophers  at  Athens, 
and  to  clinch  his  arguments  with  a  line  from 
the  hymn  of  Clean thes  the  Stoic — all  this  is 
familiar,  and  in  all  this  is  to  be  seen  the 
special  training  of  Paul  as  a  missionary. 

And  not  only  did  God  train  Paul  for  this 
work,  but  He  gave  him  unmistakable  evi- 
dences of  His  providential  control  over  both 
him  and  his  work.  As  it  was  Jesus  Himself 
who  appeared  to  Paul  in  the  way,  and  laid 

loo 


The  Problem  of  Apostolic  Missions 

on  him  the  Great  Commission,  so  it  was  the 
Holy  Ghost  who,  in  some  mysterious  bnt  in- 
dubitable way,  said  to  the  church  at  An- 
tioch,  "  Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul  for 
the  work  to  which  I  have  called  them " 
(Acts  xiii.  2).  It  was  the  Lord  Himself  who, 
when  the  apostle  went  up  to  Jerusalem  for 
the  first  time  after  his  conversion,  said  to 
him,  "  Depart — this  is  not  your  sphere  of 
labor — I  will  send  thee  far  hence  unto  the 
Gentiles  "  (xxii.  17-21)  ;  who  by  His  Spirit 
hedged  up  the  way  when  Paul  would  have 
entered  Bithynia,  and  forbade  him  to  tarry 
in  Asia,  but  led  him  down  to  Troas,  to  find 
the  explanation  of  this  mysterious  guidance 
in  the  vision  that  summoned  him  to  carry 
the  gospel  into  Europe  (xvi.  6-10) ;  who,  in 
Corinth,  when  the  Jews  opposed  themselves 
and  blasphemed,  addressed  him  in  a  vision, 
11  Be  not  afraid,  but  speak,  and  hold  not  thy 
peace :  for  I  am  with  thee,  and  no  man  shall 
set  on  thee  to  hurt  thee  :  for  I  have  much 
people  in  this  city  "  (xviii.  9,  10) ;  whose 
angel  stood  by  him  on  the  foundering  ship, 
to  assure  him  that  as  he  had  testified  for 
Him  in  Jerusalem,  so  should  he  do  also  at 
Rome  (xxvii.  23,  24)  ;  who,  when  all  others 

101 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

had  forsaken  him,  as  he  made  his  defense  be- 
fore Caesar,  stood  by  him  and  strength- 
ened him,  and  delivered  him  out  of  the 
mouth  of  the  lion  (2  Tim.  iv.  16,  17). 

Such  was  the  problem  of  missions  in  the 
apostolic  age.  A  world  given  over  to  Pagan- 
ism, and  unspeakably  corrupt  in  its  morals ; 
a  world  in  which  false  philosophies,  Roman 
political  policy,  Jewish  rancor,  the  power  of 
long-established  religious  and  social  customs, 
and  the  self-interest  of  all  those  who  made 
gain,  whether  of  money  or  of  influence,  out 
of  heathenism,  stood  ready  to  make  com- 
mon cause  against  the  gospel ;  and  yet  a 
world  wonderfully  made  ready,  physically, 
politically,  intellectually,  religiously,  for  the 
introduction  of  a  new  faith :  a  church  feeble, 
despised,  divided  within  itself  on  questions 
vital  to  missionary  success,  and  always  con- 
taining an  element  hostile  to  missionary 
effort;  and  yet  a  church  prepared  by  the 
hand  of  God,  wonderfully  led  to  true  con- 
ceptions of  missionary  duty,  furnished  with 
a  leader  who  was  as  obviously  prepared  for 
the  place  he  was  to  fill  as  was  Moses  for  the 
leadership  of  the  people  at  the  Exodus,  or 
David  to  sit  upon  the  throne  of  Israel,  and 

102 


The  Problem  of  Apostolic  Missions 

— what  was  more  than  all — a  church  to 
which  was  being  manifestly  fulfilled  the 
promise  that  was  spoken  in  the  same  breath 
with  the  bidding  to  make  disciples  of  all  the 
nations,  "Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even 
unto  the  end  of  the  world." 


103 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  MODERN  MISSIONS 

When  we  transfer  ourselves  in  thought 
from  apostolic  to  modern  times,  and  ask 
what  is  the  problem  of  missions,  it  seems  at 
first  sight  that  all  the  conditions  have 
changed.  For  one  thing,  the  world  is  vastly 
larger.  Its  map  has  been  redrawn.  In  place 
of  the  orbis  ter varum  of  the  ancients  we  have 
a  mighty  globe,  one-half  of  which  was  all  un- 
known in  the  days  of  Paul.  Nor  is  the 
world  any  longer  under  the  control  of  one 
political  power.  Christendom  and  heathen- 
dom alike  are  divided  into  many  nations, 
each  with  its  strongly  marked  nationality  and 
well-compacted  political  structure.  And 
what  is  still  more  strikingly  in  contrast  to 
the  condition  of  things  in  the  first  century, 
the  civilization,  the  culture,  the  political  sa- 
gacity, the  military  strength,  is  now  arrayed, 
not  on  the  side  of  heathenism,  but  on  that  of 
Christianity. 

And  as  the  modern  world  seems  utterly 

104 


The  Problem  of  Modern  Missions 

different  from  the  ancient,  so  the  modern 
church  presents  an  entirely  different  aspect. 
The  church  is  now  the  dominant  power  in 
the  civilized  world;  numbers,  learning, 
wealth,  political  influence,  all  are  hers.  It 
would  seem,  therefore,  that  there  could  be  no 
real  analogy  between  the  apostolic  and  the 
modern  problems  of  missions.  And  yet 
there  is  such  an  analogy,  and  it  is  not  of  a 
superficial  sort.  The  opposition  which,  a 
century  ago,  was  offered  by  heathenism  to  the 
gospel  was  of  the  same  sort,  and  sprang 
from  the  same  sources,  as  that  which  was  en- 
countered by  the  primitive  Christians.  Great 
as  the  church  of  the  eighteenth  century  was 
in  numbers  and  power,  she  had  for  the  most 
part  lost  the  missionary  impulse,  and  it  had 
to  be  renewed  within  her  by  a  providential 
and  spiritual  discipline  very  like  that  which 
we  have  traced  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
For  modern  missions,  as  well  as  for  apostolic, 
God  brought  in  a  "  fullness  of  the  times,'* 
and  when  once  the  work  had  been  entered 
upon  there  were  given  evidences  as  convinc- 
ing, almost  as  striking,  as  those  given  to 
Peter  and  Paul,  that  they  who  obey  the  com- 
mand, "  Go,  disciple  the  nations,"  have  also 

105 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

the  fulfillment  of  the  promise,  "  Lo,  I  am 
with  you  alway." 

Glance  first  at  the  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  modern  missions.  There  is  no  need  to 
draw  in  detail  on  these  pages  the  dark  pic- 
ture of  present-age  heathenism.  In  its  great 
outlines,  in  many  of  its  minutiae,  it  is  more 
or  less  familiar  to  us  all.  Its  false  faiths, 
Brahmanism,  Buddhism,  Confucianism,  Mo- 
hammedanism, Shamanism,  Fetichism,  in 
their  protean  shapes ;  the  false  philosophies 
with  which  these  are  inseparably  intertwined ; 
the  multitude  of  its  gods ;  its  idolatries ;  its 
hold  upon  the  intellectual,  social,  political 
life  of  the  peoples ;  its  shameless  untruth 
and  dishonesty ;  its  foul  impurities  ;  its  hor- 
rid cruelties,  many  of  them  practiced  under 
the  sanctions  of  religion  ;  its  hopeless  miser- 
ies ;  its  pride ;  its  entire  absorption  in  the 
present  and  the  seen — the  story  of  all  this, 
in  whole  or  in  part,  has  been  told  often. 
The  point  of  present  interest  is  that  the  ob- 
stacles to  the  entrance  and  progress  of  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  presented  by  this  heath- 
enism of  to-day  are  substantially  the  same  as 
those  which  the  heathenism  of  the  Roman 
empire  offered  to  the  efforts  of  the  apostles. 

106 


The  Problem  of  Modern  Missions 

There  is  the  same  preoccupation  of  the  soil 
against  the  truth.  The  minds  and  hearts  of 
the  heathen  are  not  tabulse  rasse  for  the  re- 
ception of  the  gospel.  Thought,  feeling, 
belief,  habit,  character,  are  already  shaped  by 
the  power  of  false  religion.  And  these  re- 
ligions of  the  heathen  world  have  held  un- 
broken sway  for  centuries.  They  have  influ- 
enced scores  of  successive  generations.  The 
influences  of  heredity  and  environment  have 
wrought  along  the  lines  of  religion  until  it 
is  scarcely  too  much  to  say  that  a  Chinaman 
is  a  Confucianist,  or  a  Hindu  an  idolater,  not 
merely  by  practice,  but  by  nature.  The  one 
worships  at  the  ancestral  tablet,  the  other 
falls  before  the  image  of  Vishnu  or  Kali,  not 
simply  from  conviction  or  training,  but  as  it 
were  by  a  law  of  his  being. 

And  while  heathenism  is  thus  interwoven 
with  the  very  fibre  of  the  man,  it  is  also 
making  constant  appeal  to  him  from  without. 
Its  outward  signs — its  temples  and  shrines, 
its  charms,  its  priests,  its  pageants,  its  cere- 
monies— are  ever  before  his  eyes.  Did  he 
wish  to  do  so,  he  could  never  put  himself 
beyond  the  sound  of  its  prayers,  its  incanta- 
tions, its  tinkling  bells,  its  booming  gongs, 

107 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

the  piercing  cries  of  its  victims.  Every  rela- 
tion he  sustains  in  life — as  a  son,  a  brother,  a 
husband,  a  father — is  under  its  spell.  Every 
event  of  his  history — his  birth,  the  giving  of 
the  name  he  bears,  the  first  cutting  of  his 
hair,  his  education,  his  passage  from  boyhood 
to  manhood,  his  betrothal,  his  marriage,  the 
beginnings  of  his  journeys,  the  sowing  of  his 
seed,  the  harvesting  of  his  crops,  his  social 
pleasures,  his  business  undertakings,  his  dis- 
asters, his  successes,  his  domestic  joys  and 
sorrows,  his  sicknesses,  his  bereavements — is 
associated  with  some  recognition  of  the  faith 
he  acknowledges. 

But  heathenism  to-day,  like  heathenism  of 
old,  has  not  only  its  fortress,  deep-founded, 
high-walled,  moat-encompassed ;  it  has  also 
its  army  of  defenders.  It  has  not  merely 
philosophies,  but  philosophers ;  not  merely 
religions,  but  religionists.  The  opposition 
which  John  Eliot  encountered  from  Indian 
powwows,  which  led  him  on  one  occasion  to 
say  in  reply  to  their  threats,  "  I  am  about  the 
work  of  the  great  God,  and  my  God  is  with 
me,  so  that  I  neither  fear  you  nor  all  the 
sachems  in  the  country,"  is  but  a  type  of 
that  which  the  priests  and  sacred  men  of 

108 


The  Problem  of  Modern  Missions 

heathenism  have  ever}Twhere  and  always  of- 
fered to  the  missionary.  Thus,  for  example, 
Duff  wrote  from  India  of  the  tumult  of  op- 
position raised  by  the  first  conversions  among 
the  Brahmans :  "  The  whole  strength  of 
Hinduism  in  the  metropolis  of  India  has  been 
mustered  against  Christianity  and  its  mis- 
sionaries. Rajas  and  Zemindars,  Baboos  and 
Brahmans  have  all  combined,  counseled,  and 
plotted  together.  An  eyewitness  at  one  of 
the  great  Sabbath  meetings,  at  which  not  less 
than  two  thousand  were  present,  assured  me 
that  several  hundreds  consisted  of  Brahmans, 
who,  at  times,  literally  wept  and  sobbed,  and 
audibly  cried  out,  saying,  'that  the  religion 
of  Brahma  was  threatened  with  destruction, 
and  that  unless  energetic  measures  were 
taken,  their  vocation  would  soon  be  at  an 
end.'  "  (Smith's  Life  of  Alexander  Duff^  ii, 
62).  Who  can  fail  to  note  the  analogy  with 
the  scene  in  the  theatre  at  Ephesus,  and 
the  exact  coincidence  of  the  double  solici- 
tude of  the  Brahmans  with  that  expressed  by 
Demetrius,  "And  not  only  is  there  danger 
that  this  our  trade  come  into  disrepute,  but 
also  that  the  temple  of  the  great  goddess 
Diana  be  made  of  no  account,  and  that  she 

109 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

should  even  be  deposed  from  her  magnifi- 
cence, whom  all  Asia  and  the  world  worship- 
ped "  (Acts  xix.  28fT.)  ?  And  as  if  to  make 
the  parallel  complete,  we  read  further  (Life 
of  Duff,  ii,  68ff.)  that,  as  Paul's  friends 
among  the  asiarchs  begged  him  not  to  adven- 
ture himself  into  the  theatre,  so  a  young 
civilian,  Mr.  Seton-Karr,  wrote  to  Dr.  Duff 
informing  him  that  there  was  a  conspiracy- 
am  ong  the  wealthy  Baboos  to  hire  ruffians  to 
maltreat  him,  and  begging  him  not  to  go  out 
at  night,  nor,  when  he  did  go  out,  to  return 
by  the  same  way. 

Let  us  recall  too,  how,  more  recently,  the 
sacred  men  of  Tanna  plotted  to  secure  the 
assassination  of  Dr.  John  G.  Paton,  and  be- 
ing thwarted  in  this,  proposed  to  kill  him  by 
Nahak,  or  sorcery ;  how,  when  Mackay  of 
Uganda  read  the  Bible  to  King  Mtesa  and 
his  court,  Arab  moollahs,  Koran  in  hand,  were 
present  to  withstand  him,  as  Elymas  with- 
stood Paul  in  the  court  of  Sergius  Paulus ; 
how,  in  Japan,  the  forces  of  Buddhism  have 
been  rallied  to  oppose  the  progress  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  how,  in  India,  the  Brahmo  Somaj 
and  the  Arya  Somaj  have  refurbished  Hin- 
duism, purged  it  of  some  of  its  absurdities 

110 


The  Problem  of  Modern  Missions 

and  excesses,  adopted  the  very  methods  of 
the  missionaries,  issuing  tracts,  writing 
hymns,  employing  itinerating  agents,  even 
holding  prayer  meetings :  and  it  will  be  evi- 
dent that  to-day,  no  less  than  in  the  first 
century,  heathen  religionists  have  been  quick 
to  scent  the  danger  with  which  the  new  faith 
threatens  the  old,  and  to  stir  themselves  to 
maintain  their  hold  upon  their  votaries. 

Then  there  has  been  mighty  resistance  to 
modern  missions  on  secular  and  commercial 
grounds.  This  has  often  been  offered  by 
heathen,  quite  as  often  as  by  nominal  Chris- 
tians who  have  desired  to  make  gain  of  them; 
but  whether  offered  by  the  one  or  the  other, 
the  motive  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  owners 
of  the  demoniac  girl  of  Philippi,  and  De- 
metrius and  his  fellow-craftsmen  at  Ephesus 
—they  see  that  "the  hope  of  their  gains  is 
gone,"  that  "their  craft  is  in  danger,  whereby 
they  get  their  wealth."  It  was  on  this  princi- 
ple that  the  East  India  Company  shut  Carey 
out  of  Calcutta  and  drove  Judson  to  Burmah, 
and,  in  spite  of  pressure  of  growing  public 
sentiment  in  England  and  repeated  changes 
in  its  charter,  maintained  a  hostile  attitude 
toward  missions  until  the  close  of  its  history. 

ill 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

On  like  grounds,  the  officers  of  the  Danish 
East  India  Company  at  Tranquebar  derided 
the  labors  of  Ziegenbalg,  and  at  last  threw 
him  into  prison,  where  he  remained  four 
months  "in  confinement  so  close  that  no 
outsider  could  gain  access  to  him,"  and  "dur- 
ing the  first  month  was  denied  even  the  use 
of  pen  and  ink."  (Thompson,  Protestant 
Mission,  p.  165.)  In  like  manner,  English 
Baptist  missionaries  to  the  West  Indies  were, 
in  1831,  arrested  and  tried  on  the  charge  of 
inciting  the  slaves  to  insurrection.  So  David 
Livingstone  found  his  plans  thwarted  and  his 
way  blocked,  both  on  the  east  coast  of  Africa 
and  on  the  west,  by  the  Portuguese,  who  saw 
that  he  was  determined  to  break  up  their 
lucrative  traffic  in  slaves.  So  still,  the  Arab 
slave-traders  and  the  German  and  American 
rum-traders  are  the  virulent  enemies  of  mis- 
sions to  the  Dark  Continent. 

And  not  only  commercial  interest,  but  gov- 
ernment policy  has  raised  opposition  to  the 
missionary.  It  is  not  for  the  true  religion 
only  that  kings  have  been  nursing  fathers  and 
queens  nursing  mothers.  What  David  proph- 
esied in  the  second  Psalm  has  been  often  ful- 
filled in  the  history  of  modern  missions.     It 

112 


The  Problem  of  Modern  Missions 

was  by  imperial  decree  that  China  was  so 
long  kept  closed  to  the  entrance  of  the  gos- 
pel, and  that  sentence  of  death  was  pro- 
claimed against  any  follower  of  Jesus  who 
should  venture  to  set  foot  in  Japan.  It  was 
a  heathen  queen  who  summoned  and,  for 
twenty-five  years,  directed,  with  almost  Sa- 
tanic energy,  all  the  forces  of  heathenism  for 
the  extirpation  of  the  Christian  church  in 
Madagascar.  It  is  the  espousal  of  the  Mo- 
hammedan cause  by  the  Turkish  government 
that,  from  the  day  that  Pliny  Fisk  and  Levi 
Parsons  began  their  work  until  now,  has 
been  the  chief  obstacle  to  the  progress  of  the 
gospel  in  that  empire ;  and  recent  terrible 
events  have  only  made  it  evident  with  what 
special  knowledge  Dr.  James  S.  Dennis  was 
speaking  when,  four  years  ago,  he  said,  "  Tho 
policy  of  the  Turkish  government  has  been 
increasingly  inimical  and  aggressive  in  its  at- 
tacks upon  mission  work.  It  has  endeavored 
to  close  schools,  to  suppress  literature,  to 
deal  a  staggering  blow  to  the  rising  ascend- 
ency of  the  awakening  Christian  element  of 

the  empire The  story  of  Moslem  and 

Christian  has  a  pathetic  past,  and  it  has  also 
its  stirring  present.     An  acute  and  startling 

113 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

phase  of  this  conflict  is  hastening  on.  The 
Christian  has  the  providence  of  God,  the 
power  of  education,  the  inspiration  of  a  re- 
ligious reformation,  the  impulse  and  stir  of 
modern  thought,  the  public  sentiment  of  the 
age,  and  the  sympathies  of  Christendom  on 
his  side.  He  has  a  haughty  and  long-domi- 
nant foe  to  deal  with,  and  the  immemorial 
ascendency  of  the  Moslem  will  never  yield 
without  a  desperate  struggle.'*  (Foreign 
Missions  After  a  Century,  p.  122.) 

Nor  should  we  forget,  in  forming  our  con- 
ception of  the  modern  problem  of  missions, 
that,  in  face  of  such  difficulties,  the  Protes- 
tant church,  from  Luther  to  Carey,  was  not 
ready  for  missionary  effort.  The  church  as 
a  whole  was  great  and  powerful,  but  that 
portion  of  it  which,  at  first,  had  any  thought 
of  missionary  duty  or  privilege  was  feeble 
and  despised.  We  may  explain  the  fact  as 
we  will,  but  we  cannot  deny  it,  that  neither 
Luther  nor  Calvin  had  any  thought  of  con- 
verting the  heathen.  Perhaps  it  was  be- 
cause they  and  their  associates  were  too 
deeply  involved  in  the  controversies  that 
had  arisen  within  the  church  itself  and  the 
momentous  questions  of  doctrine  and  policy 

114 


The  Problem  of  Modern  Missions 

that  were  pressing  for  adjustment.  It  has 
been  suggested  also  that,  so  far  as  Luther 
is  concerned,  a  mistaken  eschatology,  which 
led  him  to  look  for  the  speedy  end  of  the 
world,  may  have  operated  to  prevent  him 
from  thinking  of  missions.  Unquestionably 
the  fact  that,  at  that  time,  exploration  and 
commerce  were  in  the  hands  of  Romish 
nations,  Portugal  and  Spain  particularly, 
and  that  therefore  the  stimulus  to  missions 
which  actual  contact  with  heathen  peoples 
gives,  was  denied  to  Protestantism,  had  much 
to  do  with  this  apathy.  But  the  fact  of  this 
apathy  remains.  The  sixteenth  century 
passed  away,  and  except  the  abortive  effort 
of  Admiral  de  Coligny  to  plant  a  Christian 
colony  in  Brazil,  and  the  equally  unfruitful 
attempt  of  Gustavus  Vasa  for  the  enlighten- 
ment of  the  Laplanders,  the  Protestant 
Church  did  nothing  in  obedience  to  the 
Great  Command. 

But  God  was  in  His  church.  In  1632 
Peter  Heyling  of  Lubeck  was  stirred  up  to 
go  forth  to  Abyssinia.  In  166-i  Ernest  Von 
Welz  published  his  call  for  the  formation  of 
"  a  special  society  by  which,  with  divine  help, 
our  evangelical  religion  may  be  diffused. " 

115 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

The  missionary  character  of  this  publication 
may  be  seen  from  the  three  questions  which 
in  it  Von  Welz  proposed  to  the  German 
church.  "  Is  it  right  for  us  Christians  to 
monopolize  the  gospel?  Is  it  right  that 
when  we  have  so  many  students  of  theology 
among  us  we  do  not  urge  them  to  labor  in 
other  parts  of  the  vineyard  ?  Is  it  right  that 
we  spend  so  much  money  on  luxuries  and 
have  no  thought  of  spending  any  for  the 
diffusion  of  the  gospel  ? "  (Thompson's 
Protestant  Missions,  p.  21.)  But  Von  Welz 
was  only  vox  clamantis  in  deserto.  It  was 
not  until  the  Puritans  were  driven  to  New 
England,  and  contact  with  the  Indians  awoke 
missionary  impulses  in  the  hearts  of  John 
Eliot  and  the  Mayhews,  and  the  story  of 
their  labors  and  successes  was  sent  back, 
that  the  church  in  the  older  lands  showed 
any  effective  missionary  zeal.  Eliot  for  many 
years  received  a  salary,  first  of  <£20,  after- 
ward of  <£50,  from  the  Society  for  the  Prop- 
agation of  the  Gospel,  which  was  created  by 
Cromwell  and  the  Long  Parliament. 

And  as,  in  apostolic  times,  God  not  only 
made  use  of  persecution  to  scatter  the  dis- 
ciples over  unevangelized  regions,  but  also 

116 


The  Problem  of  Modern  Missions 

subsidized  to  the  spread  of  the  gospel  the 
commerce  which  the  needs  of  Rome  had  cre- 
ated, so,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  He  made 
the  commercial  and  colonizing  enterprises  of 
the  day  minister  to  the  cause  of  missions. 
Alongside  the  English  efforts  on  behalf  of 
the  Indians  in  America  must  be  placed 
Dutch  missions  in  the  East.  The  Dutch 
East  India  Company  was  chartered  in  1594. 
In  1622  Anthony  Walaeus,  professor  in  the 
University  of  Leyden,  at  the  request  of  the 
directors  of  the  company,  drew  up  the  plan 
of  a  missionary  training-school  which  should 
furnish  chaplains  and  missionaries.  Walseus 
himself  became  principal  of  the  new  institu- 
tion, which,  however,  lasted  but  ten  years 
and  graduated  only  twelve  alumni.  In  1627 
Grotius  wrote  his  celebrated  work,  Be  Vert- 
tate  Religionis  Christianse,  to  serve  as  a  hand- 
book for  the  Dutch  missionaries  in  their  con- 
troversies with  the  heathen.  Under  the  fos- 
tering care  of  the  company,  missionary  oper- 
ations were  carried  on,  with  much  outward 
success,  but  by  lamentably  mistaken  methods, 
and  therefore  with  small  permanent  result, 
in  Formosa,  southern  India,  Ceylon,  the  Mo- 
luccas, and  other  parts  of  the  East. 

117 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

The  eighteenth  century  in  England  and 
Germany  was  a  time  of  widespread  spiritual 
declension.  Deism  and  rationalism  were  ex- 
erting their  poisonous  influence.  Yet  the 
divine  hand  was  leading  the  church  forward 
along  the  path  of  missions.  Through  the 
Pietists  and  Moravians  on  the  Continent, 
and  by  means  of  the  Wesleyan  revival  in 
England,  God  was  fostering  the  mission  spirit 
and  raising  up  men  for  the  work.  When,  in 
1705,  Liitke,  court  chaplain  of  Frederick  IV 
of  Denmark,  was  bidden  by  his  royal  master 
to  look  out  missionaries  for  the  Danish  colony 
in  Tranquebar,  former  association  of  Liitke 
with  Spener  in  Berlin  led  him  to  apply  to 
the  latter's  successor  in  the  leadership  of  the 
Pietist  movement,  Fran  eke  of  Halle.  It  was 
at  the  very  time  when  Bartholomew  Ziegen- 
balg,  son  of  a  pious  mother,  had  been  im- 
pelled by  Francke's  instructions  to  reflect 
deeply  on  the  question  of  his  personal  duty 
to  go  forth  to  the  heathen.  The  call  of 
Liitke  for  missionaries  came  to  his  awakened 
heart  as  did  the  knock  of  the  messengers  of 
Cornelius  to  the  soul  of  Peter  meditating  on 
the  vision  of  the  great  sheet.     It  was  the 

voice  of  God,  and  Ziegenbalg  and  his  friend 

118 


The  Problem  of  Modern  Missions 

Pliitschau  at  once  offered  themselves  for  the 
new  enterprise.  And  as  at  first,  so  after- 
ward ;  the  Tranquebar  mission,  while  carried 
on  under  the  auspices  of  the  Danish  king 
and  supported  mainly  by  contributions  from 
Denmark,  drew  its  missionaries  chiefly  from 
the  Pietist  seminary  at  Halle,  and  is  there- 
fore known  as  the  Danish-Halle  mission. 

Pietism  was  destined  also  to  render  an- 
other memorable  contribution  to  the  growth 
of  missionary  movement  within  the  Protes- 
tant church.  Count  Zinzendorf,  trained  in 
childhood  by  his  grandmother  and  his  aunt, 
the  former  a  friend  of  Spener,  and  both  ardent 
Pietists;  receiving  the  beginnings  of  his  edu- 
tion  at  Francke's  school  in  Halle — Count 
Zinzendorf,  as  the  head  of  the  community  at 
Herrnhut,  and  later  bishop  of  the  revived 
Church  of  the  United  Brethren,  inaugurated 
the  first  purely  missionary  enterprise  to  be 
undertaken  by  a  Protestant  church  as  such. 
In  1722  the  Bohemian  refugees  settled  at 
Herrnhut.  In  1731  Zinzendorf  visited  Co- 
penhagen, and  there  saw  and  heard  two 
Eskimo  youths  whom  Hans  Egede  had  sent 
home  from  Greenland.  There  he  saw  also 
Anthony,  a  Negro  from  the  West  Indies,  who 

119 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

belonged  to  the  household  of  a  Swedish 
nobleman.  This  black  man  informed  some 
of  the  brethren  from  Herrnhut  who  had  ac- 
companied Zinzendorf,  and  among  them 
David  Nitschmann,  that  while  yet  in  the 
West  Indies  he  had  earnestly  desired  to 
know  the  way  of  salvation.  In  Copenhagen 
he  had  found  the  knowledge  which  he  longed 
for,  and  had  been  baptized,  and  now  he  poured 
out  to  these  new-found  friends  his  anxious 
desire  that  God  would  send  some  one  to  in- 
struct his  countrymen,  the  Negro  slaves  of 
St.  Thomas,  and  particularly  his  own  sister, 
who  had  been  like  himself  a  seeker  after 
God.  Zinzendorf  was  deeply  impressed,  and 
the  missionary  impulses  he  had  received  at 
Halle  were  greatly  quickened.  On  his  return 
to  Herrnhut  he  rehearsed  the  Negro's  story 
to  the  assembled  brethren,  and  shortly  after, 
by  the  Count's  invitation,  Anthony  himself 
came  to  Herrnhut  and  told  his  tale.  This 
was  on  July  29,  1731.  A  year  later — August 
21,  1732 — David  Nitschmann  and  Leonard 
Dober  set  out  from  Herrnhut  for  St.  Thomas. 
So  in  God's  providence  the  Eskimo  and  the 
Negro  became  the  men  of  Macedon  to  call 
the  Moravian  Church  to  its  grand  work  of 

120 


The  Problem  of  Modern  Missions 

missions.  Dober  and  Nitschmann  were  the 
advance-guard  of  that  noble  army  which, 
from  the  same  centre,  was  to  go  out  to  Green- 
land and  Labrador  and  Alaska,  to  many 
tribes  of  our  own  Indians,  to  Central  and 
South  America,  and  to  several  districts  of 
the  Dark  Continent.  By  the  Moravians  also, 
by  Christian  David  especially,  John  Wesley 
was  deeply  influenced,  and  out  of  the  Meth- 
odist revival,  through  John  Newton  and 
Thomas  Scott,  came  at  last  William  Carey, 
Andrew  Fuller,  John  Ryland,  and  the  dawn 
of  "  the  century  of  missions." 

And  now  we  must  use  the  space  left  to  us 
to  see  how  the  world  no  less  truly  than  the 
church  was  made  ready  for  missions.  The 
story  is  as  old  as  Carey ;  we  may  do  well  to 
let  him  tell  it,  prefacing  only  that  it  was 
Captain  Cook's  journals  of  his  voyages  to 
the  South  Seas,  published  in  1777,  that  first 
drew  Carey's  attention  to  the  heathen  world, 
and  led  him  at  a  later  time  to  select  Tahiti 
as  the  intended  scene  of  his  missionary 
efforts.  Having  in  his  Inquiry  proved  that 
the  Great  Commission  was  still  binding,  and 
having  surveyed  the  state  of  the  heathen 
world,  Carey  addresses  himself  to  what  he 

121 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

knew  would  seem  to  many  the  insuperable 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  carrying  the  gospel 
to  the  heathen.  "And  first,"  he  says,  "as 
to  their  distance  from  us,  whatever  objections 
might  have  been  made  on  that  ground  before 
the  invention  of  the  mariner's  compass,  noth- 
ing can  be  alleged  for  it  with  any  color  of 
plausibility  in  the  present  age.  Men  can 
now  sail  with  as  much  certainty  through  the 
great  South  Sea  as  they  can  through  the  Med- 
iterranean or  any  lesser  sea.  Yea,  and  Prov- 
idence seems  in  a  manner  to  invite  us  to  the 
trial,  for  there  are,  to  our  knowledge,  trading 
companies  whose  commerce  lies  in  many 
places  where  these  barbarians  dwell.  At 
one  time  or  other  ships  are  sent  to  visit  places 
of  more  recent  discovery,  and  to  explore 
parts  the  most  unknown  ;  and  every  fresh 
account  of  their  ignorance  or  cruelty  should 
call  forth  our  pity  and  excite  us  to  concur 
with  Providence  in  seeking  their  eternal 
good.  Scripture  likewise  seems  to  point  out 
this  method.  *  Surely  the  isles  shall  wait  for 
me ;  the  ships  of  Tarshish  first,  to  bring  my 
sons  from  far,  their  silver  and  their  gold  with 
them,  unto  the  name  of  the  Lord  thy  God ' 
(Isa.  lx.  9).     This  seems  to  imply  that  in  the 

122 


The  Problem  of  Modern  Missions 

time  of  the  glorious  increase  of  the  church, 
in  the  latter  days  (of  which  the  whole  chapter 
is  undoubtedly  a  prophecy),  commerce  shall 
subserve  the  spread  of  the  gospel.  The 
ships  of  Tarshish  were  trading  vessels,  which 
made  voyages  for  traffic  to  various  parts; 
thus  much  therefore  must  be  meant  by  it, 
that  navigation,  especially  that  which  is  com- 
mercial, shall  be  one  great  means  of  carrying 
on  the  work  of  God."  (Smith's  Life  of 
William  Carey,  p.  35).  The  mariner's  com- 
pass, geographical  discoveries,  the  great  trad- 
ing companies  and  colonizing  movements  of 
his  time — these  seemed  to  William  Carey  to 
invite  the  church  to  the  enterprise  upon 
which  his  heart  was  set. 

Thinking  so,  he  was  only  thinking  God's 
thoughts  after  Him.  Nothing  can  now  be 
more  certain  than  that  in  just  such  ways 
God  was  making  it  not  only  possible,  but 
as  it  were  inevitable,  that  the  Protestant 
church  should  undertake  the  evangelization 
of  the  world.  Attention  has  already  been 
directed  to  the  fact  that  one  great  reason 
why  the  Reformation  did  not  immediately 
issue  in  Protestant  missions  was  that,  at  that 
time,  exploration,  commerce,  the  mastery  of 

123 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

the  seas,  belonged  to  Catholic  Portugal  and 
Spain.  But  these  nations  none  the  less  had 
their  function  to  perform  in  preparing  the 
way  for  Protestant  missions.  It  was  theirs 
to  discover  and  map  out  the  field.  During 
the  half  century  that  preceded  and  the  half 
century  that  followed  1517,  Portugal  occu- 
pied a  position  of  influence  in  the  affairs  of 
Europe  and  the  world  such  as  she  had  never 
held  before,  nor  was  to  hold  again.  A  bril- 
liant company  of  navigators  was  carrying 
her  banner  to  every  part  of  the  world.  In 
1486  Bartholomew  Diaz  doubled  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope.  In  1497  Vasco  Da  Gama  dis- 
covered that  by  this  same  cape  lay  the  way 
to  India.  In  1505  the  first  Portuguese  vice- 
roy was  sent  to  India.  In  1500  Cabral  dis- 
covered and  took  possession  of  Brazil.  The 
sixteenth  century  was  also  the  period  of 
greatest  power  and  glory  for  Spain,  the  most 
intensely  Catholic  of  the  nations  of  Europe. 
Following  the  great  achievement  of  Colum- 
bus, Spain  made  ever-increasing  conquests  in 
the  New  World,  until  she  numbered  Mexico, 
Central  America,  Venezuela,  Peru,  Chile, 
Cuba,  and  San  Domingo  among  her  depend- 
encies.    And  as  this   was   the   era  of   the 

124 


The  Problem  of  Modern  Missions 

dominance  of  Portugal  and  Spain,  so  it  was 
the  era  of  Roman  Catholic  missions.  The 
Society  of  Jesus  was  founded  in  1534 ;  in 
1542  Francis  Xavier  landed  at  Goa  in  India ; 
in  1552  he  died  on  an  island  off  the  coast  of 
China. 

But  with  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury the  hegemony  of  the  seas  began  to  pass 
from  Catholic  to  Protestant  hands.  During 
the  reign  of  Elizabeth  the  great  English 
navigators — Frobisher,  Drake,  Hawkins — 
made  their  appearance.  In  1576  Frobisher 
sailed  in  search  of  a  northwest  passage  to 
India.  Three  years  later  Drake  circumnavi- 
gated the  globe.  In  the  same  year  Thomas 
Stevens  visited  Goa,  and  sent  home  to  Eng- 
land a  narrative  of  his  travels  which  at- 
tracted wide  attention.  In  1588  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Armada  gave  token  that  England 
was  henceforth  to  supersede  Spain  as  the 
mistress  of  the  seas.  And  along  with 
England  another  Protestant  country,  the 
Netherlands,  came  rapidly  forward  as  a 
commercial  and  naval  power.  As  a  part  of 
Spain  the  Dutch  people  had  enjoyed  their 
full  share  of  the  wealth  which  flowed  in 
from  the  Spanish  possessions  in  India  and 

125 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

America.  When  the  attempt  of  Philip  II. 
to  force  the  Catholic  faith  upon  them  led 
them  to  assert  their  independence,  they 
revenged  themselves  by  ousting  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  traders  in  the  East  and  West 
Indies.  The  English  East  India  Company 
had  been  chartered  in  the  year  1600.  The 
Dutch  East  India  Company  was  organized  in 
1602.  In  1616,  the  Danes,  another  Protestant 
people,  acquired  possessions  in  Tranquebar 
and  Serampore,  the  former  of  which  places 
was  to  become  the  field  of  the  Danish-Halle 
mission,  and  the  latter  to  furnish  to  William 
Carey,  denied  by  his  own  countrymen 
entrance  to  Calcutta,  a  foothold  for  the 
prosecution  of  his  great  work.  And  as  in 
the  East,  so  in  the  West.  Jamestown,  1608; 
Plymouth,  1620 ;  New  Amsterdam,  1614 ; 
Surinam,  1622 — these  are  the  proofs  that,  in 
the  New  World,  also  Protestant  England  and 
Protestant  Holland  were  beginning  to  con- 
test supremacy  with  Catholic  Portugal  and 
most  Catholic  Spain.  And  out  of  the  con- 
tact with  heathenism  which  was  the  result  of 
these  commercial  and  colonizing  enterprises 
on  the  part  of  Protestant  peoples  arose,  as 

we  have  seen,  the   earliest  Protestant  mis- 

126 


The  Problem  of  Modern  Missions 

sions.  The  mariner's  compass,  geographical 
discovery,  the  great  trading  companies  and 
colonizing  movements  of  his  time — these,  as 
has  already  been  remarked,  seemed  to 
William  Carey  to  be  the  great  providential 
indications  that  the  hour  for  missions  to  the 
heathen  had  struck.  And  now  it  is  plain 
that  he  was  right.  For  if  we  should  add  to 
the  mariner's  compass  that  great  invention 
of  which  he  and  his  associates  at  Serampore 
were  to  make  such  mighty  use,  the  printing- 
press,  and  that  other  which  under  the  hands 
of  James  Watt  the  Englishman  and  Robert 
Fulton  the  American  was  to  make  the  earth 
so  small,  we  should  have  from  the  pen  of  the 
father  of  nineteenth-century  missions  a  brief 
but  comprehensive  statement  of  that  which, 
so  far,  at  least,  as  the  physical  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  missions  are  concerned,  made  the 
latter  day  "  fullness  of  the  times." 


127 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  METHODS   OF   APOSTOLIC   MISSIONS 

By  the  term  "  missionary  methods,"  we  of 
the  present  day  are  apt  to  mean  simply  the 
modes  of  operation  adopted  by  missionaries 
on  the  field.  We  speak  of  preaching  as  a 
missionary  method,  or  of  printing  and  dis- 
tributing the  Scriptures  as  a  missionary 
method ;  but  we  would  not,  perhaps,  think 
of  including  under  that  term  the  means  em- 
ployed at  home  for  raising  the  funds  needed 
to  send  out  missionaries,  or  the  principles 
upon  which  a  mission  board  should  decide 
whether  or  not  it  should  enter  a  new  field. 
Yet  the  latter  are  missionary  methods  no  less 
than  the  former,  and  in  speaking  of  apostolic 
missions  we  must  use  the  term  " methods" 
in  this  more  comprehensive  sense.  For  in 
the  apostolic  church  there  was  not,  and  in 
the  nature  of  the  case  there  could  not  be, 
that  sharp  distinction  between  the  church  and 
its  missionaries  which  obtains  to-day.  As  was 
suggested  in  an  earlier  chapter,  the  whole 
membership  of  the  Pentecostal  church  was 

128 


The  Methods  of  Apostolic  Missions 

engaged  in  the  proclamation  of  the  gospel. 
Nor  was  there  any  distinction  of  home  field 
from  foreign  field.  Every  place,  even  Jeru- 
salem, was  at  first  foreign  field  to  the  disci- 
ples of  Jesus.  It  is  well,  perhaps,  that  we 
are  compelled  to  remind  ourselves  that  in 
the  beginning  the  whole  work  of  missions, 
the  devising  and  use  of  means  for  meeting 
all  the  varied  necessities  of  the  work,  lay 
upon  the  whole  church.  We  are  apt  to  think 
that  the  work  of  missions  belongs  chiefly  to 
missionaries  specifically  so  called,  and  em- 
braces little  beyond  what  such  missionaries 
can  accomplish.  No  more  valuable  fruit 
could  be  gathered  from  a  fresh  study  of  ap- 
ostolic missions  than  a  renewal  of  the  con- 
viction that  missions  is  the  work,  not  of  a 
part  of  the  church,  but  of  the  church,  and 
that  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  whole 
work  of  missions  no  agency  short  of  the 
whole  church  is  sufficient. 

Using  the  term  missionary  methods  in  the 
larger  sense  which  has  been  suggested,  the 
first  topic  to  which  we  invite  attention  is  the 
geographical  plan  of  apostolic  missions.  Our 
Lord's  command  was  to  make  disciples  of  all 
the   nations,   to   preach   the   gospel  to   the 

129 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

whole  creation.  A  work  so  vast  could  never 
be  accomplished,  or  even  rightly  begun,  by- 
haphazard  methods.  Some  sort  of  plan  was 
essential  to  success.  And  the  Saviour  sup- 
plied some  directions  as  to  the  geographical 
plan  to  be  followed.  He  commanded  that 
"  repentance  and  remission  of  sins  should  be 
preached  in  his  name  among  all  nations,  be- 
ginning at  Jerusalem  "  (Luke  xxiv.  47),  and 
that  the  disciples  should  be  "  witnesses  to 
him  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judaea  and 
Samaria,  and  unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the 
earth  "  (Acts  i.  8). 

The  first  specification,  then,  in  the  divinely 
ordered  geographical  plan  of  missions  was  that 
the  apostles  should  begin  at  Jerusalem.  If 
we  seek  reasons  for  this  injunction,  a  main 
one  no  doubt  is  that  in  this  way  the  vital  re- 
lation between  Christianity  and  Judaism 
would  be  emphasized.  But  aside  from  this, 
the  disciples  were  bidden  to  tarry  at  Jerusa- 
lem, and  begin  their  work  there  because  oth- 
erwise they  might  have  separated  to  their 
homes  before  the  day  of  Pentecost,  and  thus 
have  missed  the  opportunity  for  the  wide 
diffusion  of  the  gospel  which  the  presence  at 
the  feast  of  so  many  foreign  Jews  afforded. 

130 


The  Methods  of  Apostolic  Missions 

Besides  bidding  the  apostles  to  begin  at 
Jerusalem,  the  Lord's  command  indicates 
"all  Judaea  and  Samaria"  as  the  next  sphere 
of  their  missionary  labors,  and  after  that 
"  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,"  that  is 
to  say,  all  regions,  even  the  most  remote. 
And  the  early  chapters  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  inform  us  that  this  was  the  actual 
order  in  which  the  extension  of  the  church 
took  place.  This  result  was  brought  about, 
not  so  much  by  deliberate  design  on  the  part 
of  the  apostles,  as  by  God's  providence,  which 
used  the  persecution  which  began  with  the 
stoning  of  Stephen  to  scatter  the  believers 
abroad  over  the  very  regions  which  the  Sa- 
viour had  indicated  (Acts  viii.  1). 

Among  the  laborers  thus  thrust  forth  into 
the  harvest  by  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  Him- 
self was  Philip,  who  entered  the  city  of  Sa- 
maria and  taught,  and  with  such  success  that 
a  large  body  of  converts  was  quickly  gained. 
When  report  of  this  fact  was  brought  to  the 
apostles,  who,  in  spite  of  persecution,  had  re- 
mained at  Jerusalem — no  doubt  for  mutual 
consultation,  and  that  a  visible  unity  of  the 
church  might  thus  be  maintained — they  sent 
forth  Peter  and  John  to  take  up  and  com- 

131 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

plete  the  work  which  Philip  had  begun. 
And  they,  on  their  return  journey  to  Jerusa- 
lem, preached  the  gospel  in  many  villages  of 
the  Samaritans  (viii.  1-25). 

Meanwhile  God  had  appointed  Philip  to  a 
new  field  of  labor.  When  he  had  met  and 
instructed  and  baptized  the  eunuch  of  Queen 
Candace,  we  find  him  next  at  Azotus,  in 
the  Mediterranean  coast-plain,  and,  passing 
thence  northward,  he  preaches  the  gospel  to 
all  the  cities  till  he  comes  to  Cassarea  (viii. 
40).  Thus,  in  spite  of  persecution,  even  by 
means  of  it,  there  comes  to  be  what  is  called 
(ix.  31)  "  the  church  throughout  all  Judaea 
and  Galilee  and  Samaria." 

Then  follows  notice  of  a  tour  of  Peter 
through  these  same  regions,  visiting,  among 
other  places,  Lydda,  where  he  healed  ^Eneas, 
and  Joppa,  where  he  raised  Dorcas  to  life, 
and  by  the  aid  of  the  impression  made  by 
these  miracles  gained  many  converts  (ix. 
32-43).  From  Joppa  he  was  summoned  to 
make  his  memorable  journey  to  Caesarea,  in 
order  that  for  the  first  time  Gentiles,  in  the 
person  of  Cornelius  and  his  household,  should 
be  admitted  directly  to  the  church  without 
submitting  to  circumcision.     This  new  de- 

132 


The  Methods  of  Apostolic  Missions 

velopment  of  the  work,  also,  came  under  the 
cognizance  of  the  church  at  Jerusalem. 
When  Peter  returned,  he  was  sharply  at- 
tacked for  having  entered  into  fellowship 
with  Gentiles.  But  he  was  able  to  give  so 
clear  an  account  of  divine  leading  in  the 
whole  matter  that  criticism  was  silenced,  nay, 
even  gave  place  to  rejoicing  because  to  the 
Gentiles  also  God  had  granted  repentance 
unto  life  (x.  1-xi.  18). 

We  see,  then,  the  way  in  which  the 
apostles  carried  out  the  first  part  of  their 
Master's  geographical  plan  of  missions. 
They  began  at  Jerusalem.  From  Jerusalem 
as  a  centre,  they  went  forth,  personally  or 
through  the  medium  of  the  disciples,  to  all 
Judaea  and  Samaria ;  to  Jerusalem  report  was 
made  of  the  gathering  of  converts,  first  from 
among  the  Jews,  and  then  from  among  the 
Gentiles;  from  Jerusalem  the  apostles  di- 
rected, confirmed,  and  extended  the  work 
thus  begun.  Let  us  now  inquire  how  attack 
was  made  upon  the  remaining  region  indi- 
cated in  the  Lord's  command,  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth. 

The  initiative  in  this  great  task  was  taken 
by  some  of  those  who  were  scattered  abroad 

133 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

by  the  same  persecution  that  sent  Philip  to 
Samaria.  These,  we  are  told,  passed  beyond 
the  limits  of  the  Holy  Land  to  Phoenicia, 
Cyprus,  and  Antioch.  Though  at  first  they 
preached  to  Jews  only,  yet  in  Antioch  cer- 
tain of  them,  themselves  men  of  Cyprus  and 
Cyrene,  broke  over  the  boundaries  of  Jewish 
exclusiveness,  and  spoke  to  the  Greeks  also 
the  word  of  the  Lord.  The  result  was  that 
a  great  multitude  believed.  Tidings  of  this, 
also,  came  to  Jerusalem,  and  the  church  there 
sent  Barnabas  to  Antioch  to  direct  the  work. 
He  associated  with  himself  that  Saul  of 
Tarsus  for  the  reality  of  whose  conversion 
he  had  recently  stood  sponsor  in  Jerusalem. 
Under  their  joint  leadership  the  church  in 
Antioch  grew  outwardly  and  inwardly,  until 
even  the  heathen  perceived  that  these  disci- 
ples of  Jesus  could  no  longer  be  identified 
with  the  Jews ;  therefore  they  coined  a  new 
name  for  them,  and  called  them  Christians 
(xi.  19-26). 

Here,  as  the  very  structure  of  the  Book  of 
Acts  makes  evident,  we  reach  a  great  turn- 
ing-point in  the  history  of  apostolic  missions. 
In  Antioch  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost  was 
heard  saying,  "  Separate  me  Barnabas  and 

134 


The  Methods  of  Apostolic  Missions 

Saul  for  the  work  whereunto  I  have  called 
them  "  (xiii.  2).  From  Antioch,  sent  forth 
thus  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  two  divinely 
designated  missionaries  went  forth  to  Sal- 
amis  and  Paphos,  to  Perga  and  Lystra  and 
Iconium,  and  to  the  other  Antioch.  To  the 
Syrian  capital  they  returned  and  made  report 
of  all  that  God  had  accomplished  by  them 
in  opening  a  door  of  faith  unto  the  Gentiles 
(chaps,  xiii,  xiv).  Thence  they  were  about 
to  set  forth  again  to  visit  and  confirm  the 
churches  previously  founded,  when  difference 
of  opinion  as  to  the  expediency  of  taking 
Mark  with  them  led  to  the  separation  of  the 
two  co-laborers.  Barnabas  took  Mark  and 
sailed  for  Cyprus  ;  Paul,  choosing  Silas  as 
his  companion,  departed  to  go  through  Syria 
and  Cilicia. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that,  had  Paul 
been  left  to  the  exercise  of  his  own  discre- 
tion, he  would  have  confined  this  tour  to  Asia 
Minor,  and,  when  he  had  founded  churches 
in  Mysia  and  Bithynia  and  Proconsular  Asia, 
would  have  returned  once  more  to  Antioch. 
But  the  Head  of  the  church,  the  great  Mas- 
ter Missionary,  who  had  outlined  the  cam- 
paign of  the  eleven,  was  also  directing  the 

135 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

movements  of  the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles. 
By  the  vision  at  Troas  Paul  was  led  to 
Europe,  and  immediately  to  Philippi.  The 
importance  of  this  city  is  especially  brought 
to  notice  in  the  inspired  record  by  the  state- 
ment (xvi.  12)  that  it  was  the  chief  city  of 
the  district  and  a  colony,  that  is,  a  colony  in 
the  strict  technical  sense  of  the  word,  a  little 
Rome,  as  it  were,  in  its  political  arrangements 
and  the  privileges  enjoyed  by  its  citizens. 
Here  a  home  was  provided  for  the  apostle  and 
his  company  in  the  house  of  Lydia.  Now  if 
we  compare  the  statement  (xvi.  18)  that  it 
was  "for  many  days"  that  the  demoniac  girl 
bore  her  wild  testimony  to  the  divine  mis- 
sion of  Paul  and  his  companions  with  the 
account  of  the  conversion  of  the  jailer  (xvi. 
27ff),  conveying,  as  it  does,  so  strong  an  im- 
pression that  it  was  not  first  on  the  night  of 
the  earthquake  that  this  man  heard  the 
teaching  of  the  apostle,  but  that  the  truth 
had  already  been  working  for  some  time  upon 
his  conscience,  and  that  to  be  caught  and 
held,  so  to  speak,  as  he  was  tottering  on  the 
verge  of  the  precipice  of  suicide,  but  fastened 
in  an  instant  a  conviction  of  sin  and  ruin 
which  had  gradually  been  gathering  strength; 

136 


The  Methods  of  Apostolic  Missions 

and  if  we  add  the  fact  that  in  the  epistle  to 
the  Philippians  seems  to  point  to  a  somewhat 
long  intercourse  between  them  and  the 
apostle :  we  shall  conclude  that  the  stay  of 
Paul  in  Philippi  was  much  more  extended 
than  a  casual  reading  of  Luke's  narrative 
might  lead  us  to  suppose. 

Leaving  Philippi,  Paul  goes  forward  to 
Thessalonica,  Beroea,  Athens  and  finally  Cor- 
inth. And  it  is  noteworthy  that  while,  by  the 
outbreak  of  persecutions,  putting  their  lives 
in  peril,  in  the  two  first-named  cities,  and  the 
unreceptive  temper  of  the  sensation-loving 
Athenians,  the  missionaries  had  providential 
intimation  that  they  were  not  to  prolong  their 
stay  (xvii.  10,  14,  33),  a  different  purpose 
was  manifested  as  to  their  sojourn  in  Corinth. 
Persecution  broke  out  here  also,  it  is  true ; 
but  the  refusal  of  Gallio  to  be  a  judge  in 
what  he  contemptuously  regarded  as  a  mere 
dispute  between  Jews  about  words  and 
names  prevented  it  from  accomplishing  its 
purpose  of  driving  out  the  apostle.  By  a 
vision,  also,  the  Lord  commanded  Paul  to  re- 
main in  Corinth  and  to  labor  without  fear, 
for  He  "  had  much  people  in  that  city."  In 
obedience  to  this  heavenly  vision,  Paul  re- 

137 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

mained  for  eighteen  months,  perhaps  even 
longer.  He  found  a  home  for  himself  in  the 
household  of  Aquila,  and  for  the  church  in 
the  house  of  Titus  Justus.  Many  of  the 
Corinthians  who  heard  his  preaching  believed 
and  were  baptized,  among  others  the  chief 
ruler  of  the  synagogue  and  the  treasurer  of 
the  city  (xviii.  1-17). 

The  term  of  Paul's  work  in  Corinth  was 
set  by  the  approach  of  a  feast  which  he  was 
anxious  to  keep  in  Jerusalem,  perhaps  in 
connection  with  the  termination  of  a  vow 
which  he  is  said  to  have  taken.  On  his  way 
to  Jerusalem  he  visited  Ephesus,  refusing  to 
tarry,  but  promising  to  return  should  it  be 
God's  will.  When  the  feast  was  past,  he 
went  again  to  Antioch,  and  when  he  had 
spent  some  time  in  that  city,  where  he  had 
previously  labored  a  whole  year,  he  set  out 
once  more,  and  after  visiting  the  churches  in 
Galatia  and  Phrygia,  he  fulfilled  his  promise 
to  return  to  Ephesus  (xviii.  18-23,  xix.  1). 
Here  he  remained  for  three  years  (xx.  31), 
disputing  first  for  three  months  in  the  syna- 
gogue, and  then  separating  the  disciples  and 
reasoning  daily  in  the  school  of  Tyrannus; 
and,  by  means  of  his  teaching  and  of  special 

133 


The  Methods  of  Apostolic  Missions 

miracles  which  God  wrought  hy  his  hands, 
bringing  it  about  that  "  all  they  that  dwelt 
in  Asia  heard  the  word  of  the  Lord,  both 
Jews  and  Greeks"  (xix.  10).  Driven  from 
Ephesus  at  last  by  the  tumult  aroused  by 
Demetrius  and  his  fellow-craftsmen,  Paul 
spent  three  months  in  Greece,  passed  through 
Macedonia,  and  went  by  way  of  Troas,  Assos, 
and  Miletus  to  Jerusalem  (chaps,  xx.,  xxi.). 
Enabled  at  last,  though  in  a  way  no  doubt 
very  different  from  what  he  had  anticipated, 
to  carry  out  his  long-cherished  purpose  to 
see  Rome  and  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  those 
that  were  in  Rome  also  (xix.  21 ;  cf.  Rom.  i. 
13),  he  abode  in  the  imperial  city  "  two  whole 
years  in  his  own  hired  dwelling,  and  received 
all  that  went  in  unto  him,  preaching  the 
kingdom  of  God,  and  teaching  the  things 
concerning  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  with  all 
boldness,  none  forbidding  him  "  (Acts  xxviii. 
30,  31).  And  with  this  statement  the  direct 
account  of  his  labors  comes  to  a  close. 

But  why,  the  reader  may  inquire,  review 
at  such  length  so  familiar  a  history  ?  The 
reply  is  that  by  such  a  review  we  have  made 
plain  to  us  the  geographical  plan  of  mis- 
sionary  operation   which   Paul,   under    the 

139 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

guidance  at  once  of  providential  indications 
and  of  special  revelations  at  critical  junc- 
tures, was  led  to  adopt.  As  Jerusalem  was 
for  the  eleven  the  centre  from  which  Pales- 
tine was  evangelized  and  the  church  there 
organized,  so  Antioch,  the  capital  of  Syria, 
Philippi,  the  chief  city  of  Macedonia,  Cor- 
inth, the  capital  of  Achaia,  Ephesus,  the 
capital  of  Proconsular  Asia,  and  Rome,  the 
capital  of  the  Empire,  became  for  Paul  the 
divinely  indicated  centres  from  which  he 
carried  on  his  work,  and  from  which  he  made 
the  word  of  God  to  sound  out  in  every 
place. 

Our  second,  and  indeed  our  main  question 
with  respect  to  apostolic  methods  in  missions 
has  reference  to  the  agencies  employed  in 
proclaiming  the  gospel  and  establishing  the 
church.  We  have  seen  that  the  apostles 
received  the  great  outlines,  both  of  the  aim 
of  missions,  and  of  the  geographical  plan  to 
be  followed,  in  what  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
called  their  "  marching  orders,"  in  the  Great 
Commission  itself.  Did  they  also  receive 
from  the  Lord  instructions  as  to  the  agencies 
to  be  employed? 

As  students  and  promoters  of  missions  we 

140 


The  Methods  of  Apostolic  Missions 

cannot  ascribe  too  great  importance  to  the 
last  command.  Let  us  have  no  hesitation, 
therefore,  in  bringing  it  once  more  before 
us.  "  Go  ye,  therefore,  and  make  disciples 
of  all  the  nations,  baptizing  them  into  the 
name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  teaching  them  to  observe 
all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded 
you : — "  so  Matthew.  "  Go  ye  into  all  the 
world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  the  whole 
creation: — "  so  Mark.  "Repentance  and 
remission  of  sins  shall  be  preached  in  my 
name  unto  all  nations Ye  are  wit- 
nesses of  these  things: — "  so  Luke.  Of 
these  three  forms  of  the  Saviour's  parting  in- 
junction the  first  is  the  fullest,  and  we  have 
already  expressed  the  conviction  that  it  sub- 
stantially embodies  the  aim  of  missions ;  that 
the  participial  clauses,  "baptizing  them,"  etc., 
and  "  teaching  them,"  etc.,  are  explicative  of 
the  direct  command  "make  disciples,"  and 
that  the  whole  may  therefore  be  paraphrased 
somewhat  as  follows  :  "  Go,  make  all  nations 
adherents  of  the  religion  which  I  have  taught 
you,  by  baptizing  them  into  the  name  of  the 
Trinity  and  teaching  them  to  observe  all  my 
commands."  "But  how?"  the  disciples  might 

141 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

well  ask ;  "  how  are  we  to  do  all  this  ? " 
Mark  and  Luke  supply  the  answer  to  the  un- 
spoken question.  "  Go,  preach  the  Gospel." 
14  Repentance  and  remission  of  sins  shall  be 
preached  in  my  name." 

Our  Lord  seems,  then,  to  point  out  preach- 
ing as  the  great,  if  not  the  only,  missionary 
agency.  If  now,  as  in  our  study  of  the  aim 
of  missions,  we  throw  on  the  language  of 
the  Great  Commission  the  light  of  apostolic 
example,  we  see  that  both  in  the  Acts  and 
in  the  Epistles  the  greatest  stress  is  laid  upon 
preaching  as  a  missionary  method.  Indeed, 
the  very  form  of  the  Pentecostal  gift  fore- 
tokened the  part  that  preaching  was  to  play 
in  the  extension  of  the  church,  and  the  day  of 
its  bestowal  had  not  closed  before  an  ingath- 
ering of  three  thousand  souls  had  witnessed 
to  the  efficiency  of  this  divinely  appointed 
means.  And  as  the  apostles  began,  so  they 
continued.  "  Every  day  in  the  temple  and  at 
home  they  ceased  not  to  teach  and  to  preach 
Jesus  as  the  Christ"  (Acts  v.  42).  After  the 
stoning  of  Stephen,  "they  that  were  scattered 
abroad  went  about  preaching  the  word." 
Philip,  for  example,  "  went  down  to  the  city 
of  Samaria  and  proclaimed  unto  them  the 

142 


The  Methods  of  Apostolic  Missions 

Christ."  Joining  himself  to  the  eunuch,  he 
took  his  text  from  the  very  passage  which 
the  traveler  was  reading,  "  and  preached 
unto  him  Jesus."  When  the  eunuch  had 
gone  on  his  way  rejoicing,  Philip  began  at  - 
Azotus,  "  and  preached  the  gospel  unto  all 
the  cities  until  he  came  to  Csesarea"  (viii. 
4,  5,  35,  40). 

Nor  did  Paul  prove  an  innovator  in  this 
respect.  The  first  glimpse  we  have  of  the 
missionary  apostle,  after  he  and  Barnabas 
were  sent  forth  by  the  Holy  Ghost  from 
Antioch,  is  at  Salamis  in  Cyprus,  where,  we 
are  told,  "  they  proclaimed  the  word  of  God 
in  the  synagogues  of  the  Jews "  (xiii.  5) ; 
and  the  last  verses  of  the  Acts  show  him  in 
his  hired  house  at  Rome,  receiving  all  that 
went  in  unto  him,  "  preaching  the  kingdom 
of  God,  and  teaching  the  things  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  with  all  boldness"  (xxviii.  31). 
And  Paul's  own  epistles  confirm  the  picture 
which  Luke  draws.  Twice  in  the  Epistles 
to  Timothy  (1  Tim.  ii.  7,  2  Tim.  i.  11),  he 
speaks  of  himself  as  having  been  appointed  a 
preacher.  He  tells  the  Corinthians  (1  Cor. 
i.  17)  that  Christ  sent  him  not  to  baptize, 
but  to  preach  the  gospel,  and  that  the  word 

143 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

of  the  cross,  however  much  it  might  be  de- 
spised by  Jews  and  Greeks,  was  the  divinely 
ordained  means  of  man's  salvation. 

But  while  it  is  plain  that  the  eleven  and 
Paul  were  of  one  mind  in  considering  preach- 
ing a  chief  missionary  agency,  it  is  plain  also 
that  they  had  a  broad  conception  of  what 
preaching  is.  Not  only  formal  utterance  of 
religious  truth  in  a  public  assembly,  but  any 
oral  communication  of  such  truth  was 
preaching,  in  the  apostolic  view.  He  who 
uttered  the  truth  might  be  an  official  person, 
apostle,  as  was  Paul,  deacon,  as  was  Philip,  or 
an  unofficial  person,  as  were  most  of  those 
who  are  said  to  have  gone  about  preaching 
the  word.  The  time  for  preaching  was  not 
the  Sabbath  merely,  but  every  day,  and  even 
any  hour  of  the  day  or  night.  The  apostles 
delivered  from  prison  by  an  angel  entered 
into  the  temple  about  daybreak  and  taught 
(Acts  v.  21) ;  and  at  midnight  Paul  and  Silas 
spoke  the  word  of  the  Lord  to  the  jailer  and 
his  household  (xvi.  32).  The  place  of  preach- 
ing might  be  the  temple,  as  so  often  in  the 
days  that  followed  Pentecost;  or  the  syna- 
gogue, Paul's  favorite  point  of  vantage  for 
addressing  his   countrymen;    but   it   might 

144 


The  Methods  of  Apostolic  Missions 

also  be  a  private  house,  the  market-place,  the 
amphitheatre,  the  proseuche  by  the  river,  the 
court  of  a  prison,  or  the  audience-hall  of  a 
Roman  governor.  The  audience  might  be  a 
reverent  assembly  of  Jews,  or  a  group  of 
pious  women,  or  a  knot  of  half-contemptuous 
philosophers,  or  a  single  household,  or  a 
single  person,  traveler,  soldier,  or  slave.  The 
style  of  address  might  rise  to  the  highest 
level  of  eloquence,  as  when  Paul  spoke  on 
Mars  Hill,  or  be  that  of  simple  conversation, 
as  when  Philip  sat  beside  the  eunuch  in  the 
chariot.  In  short,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
is  the  best  commentary  on  that  injunction  of 
Paul  to  Timothy  (2  Tim.  iv.  2)  which  has 
been  so  often  misunderstood,  "Preach  the 
word;  be  instant  in  season,  out  of  season." 

As  to  the  matter  of  apostolic  preaching,  it 
varied  with  the  character  of  the  audience 
addressed  and  the  immediate  object  intended 
to  be  served.  The  Saviour  had  bidden  His 
followers  to  be  witnesses  unto  Him,  to  an- 
nounce the  good  tidings,  to  proclaim  repent- 
ance and  remission  of  sins  in  His  name ;  but 
He  had  also  enjoined  them  to  teach  the  ob- 
servance of  all  His  commands.  Accord- 
ingly, part  of  the  preaching  of  the  apostles 

145 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

was  directed  to  making  disciples,  and  part  to 
instructing  and  upbuilding  those  who  were 
already  disciples.  And  if  we  compare  Peter's 
sermon  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  (Acts  ii. 
14-36)  with  his  address  in  the  house  of  Cor- 
nelius (x.  34-43),  or  Paul  in  the  synagogue 
of  Pisidian  Antioch  (xiii.  16-41)  with  Paul 
to  the  idolaters  of  Lystra  (xiv.  15fT.),  or 
Paul  to  the  philosophers  of  Athens  (xvii. 
22-31),  we  shall  see  how  well  these  first  mis- 
sionaries were  able  to  fit  the  truth  they  ut- 
tered to  the  needs  of  those  whom  they  ad- 
dressed. And  if  it  be  asked  how  this  variety 
in  the  matter  of  Paul's  preaching  squares 
with  his  affirmation  (1  Cor.  ii.  2),  that  he 
determined  to  know  nothing  among  the  Co- 
rinthians save  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  cruci- 
fied, the  answer  is  that  we  must  distinguish 
between  the  course  which  the  apostle  adopted 
in  first  presenting  the  gospel  to  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Corinth  and  that  which  he  took  after 
a  numerous  church  had  been  gathered.  He 
himself,  in  his  letters  to  that  church,  makes 
reference  to  instructions  which  he  had  given 
as  to  public  worship,  the  observance  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  and  the  fact  and  meaning  of 
the   resurrection.     The   truth   is   that  what 

146 


The  Methods  of  Apostolic  Missions 

Paul  was  accustomed  to  call  his  gospel  was  a 
whole  body  of  Christian  truth  and  precept. 
The  heart  of  this  body  was  indeed  Christ 
aud  Him  crucified,  but  the  warm  blood  from 
this  heart  pulsated  in  the  farthest  extremi- 
ties. No  one  understood  this  better  than 
Paul.  As  the  law  of  Moses  enforced  even 
the  prohibition  to  reap  the  corners  of  a  field 
by  the  solemn  refrain,  "I  am  Jehovah  your 
God,"  so  Paul  knew  how  to  root  the  humblest 
duties  of  the'  Christian  life  in  the  mightiest 
facts  of  the  gospel,  in  God's  eternal  purpose, 
in  the  death  or  resurrection  or  exaltation  of 
God's  Son. 

But  if  preaching,  in  the  comprehensive 
sense  of  the  term  which  has  been  suggested, 
was  the  principal  missionary  method  em- 
ployed by  the  apostles,  was  it  the  only  one? 
We  may  boldly  answer  that  it  was  not.  We 
have  just  noted  that  in  apostolic  preaching 
distinction  must  be  made  between  that  which 
was  intended  to  lead  non-believers,  whether 
Jews  or  Gentiles,  to  faith,  and  that  which 
was  addressed  to  believers  and  was  meant  for 
their  edification.  Now  the  same  distinction 
runs  through  the  whole  activity  of  the  apos- 
tles as  missionaries.     While  one  great  part  of 

147 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

their  work  was  to  preach  the  gospel  with  a 
view  to  the  conversion  of  individuals,  another 
great  part  of  it  was  to  instruct  the  converts 
thus  made,  to  organize  them  into  churches, 
and  to  conduct  these  churches  to  the  point  of 
independent  and  aggressive  life.  And  for 
this  latter  purpose  the  apostles  made  use  of 
what  for  lack  of  a  better  name  we  must  call 
the  supervisory  method.  It  has  already  been 
suggested  that  it  was  partly  in  order  that 
they  might  exercise  this  function  of  super- 
vision that  the  apostles,  when  all  other  Chris- 
tians had  been  driven  by  persecution  from 
Jerusalem,  remained  bravely  at  their  post. 
We  have  noted  also  that  among  Paul's  re- 
sponsibilities none  weighed  more  heavily 
upon  him  than  the  daily  care  of  all  the 
churches  (2  Cor.  xi.  28).  The  details  of  this 
supervisory  method  of  missionary  operation 
as  it  was  practiced  by  the  apostles  will  readily 
suggest  themselves. 

First,  for  example,  they  made  use  of  per- 
sonal visitation.  The  apostles  did  not  remain 
in  one  place,  but  were  constantly  moving 
about,  as  the  necessities  of  the  expanding 
church  demanded.  It  was  in  order  that  they 
might  be  able  to  do  this  that  they  adopted, 

148 


The  Methods  of  Apostolic  Missions 

under  divine  guidance,  the  geographical  plan 
of  missions  which  has  been  outlined.  When 
Philip  had  preached  with  success  in  Samaria, 
Peter  and  John  went  thither  to  direct  the 
work.  When  the  same  evangelist  had  made 
a  tour  through  the  cities  of  the  Judsean  coast- 
plain,  Peter  presently  followed  him  over  the 
same  ground.  And  this  plan  of  personal 
visitation  was  a  favorite  one,  also,  with  Paul. 
On  his  first  tour,  he  and  Barnabas  returned, 
at  the  risk  of  their  lives,  over  their  own 
course,  revisiting  Lystra,  Iconium,  and  Anti- 
och  of  Pisidia,  confirming  the  souls  of  the 
disciples,  exhorting  them  to  continue  in  the 
faith,  forewarning  them  of  persecution,  and 
completing  their  organization  into  churches 
by  appointing  elders  (Acts  xiv.  21-23).  His 
second  journey  was  undertaken  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  visiting  the  churches 
founded  on  the  first.  "  Let  us  return  now," 
this  was  his  proposal  to  Barnabas,  "  and  visit 
the  brethren  in  every  city  wherein  we  pro- 
claimed the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  see  how 
they  fare  "  (xv.  36).  And  this  plan  he  car- 
ried out ;  he  "  went  through  Syria  and  Cilicia, 
confirming  the  churches  "  (xv.  41).  He  be- 
gan his  third  tour,  also,  by  going  through  the 

149 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

region  of  "  Galatia  and  Phrygia  in  order, 
stablislring  all  the  disciples  "  (xviii.  23).  At 
the  close  of  his  stay  in  Ephesus,  he  departed 
to  go  into  Macedonia,  and  when  he  had  gone 
through  those  parts,  and  had  given  them 
much  exhortation,  he  came  into  Greece. 
Here  he  spent  three  months,  no  doubt  in  the 
same  work  of  personal  visitation.  Then  he 
set  out  for  Jerusalem,  but  took  opportunity 
to  go  back  once  more  through  Macedonia, 
and  to  revisit  Troas,  where  he  prolonged  his 
affectionate  counsels  to  the  church  through 
the  whole  night.  Though  he  could  not  spare 
time  to  go  to  Ephesus,  he  summoned  the 
elders  of  the  church  in  that  city  to  meet  him 
at  Miletus,  and  there  gave  them  a  solemn 
parting  charge  (chap.  xx.). 

A  second  way  in  which  the  apostles  ex- 
ercised this  function  of  oversight  was  by  the 
employment  of  assistants.  There  was  more 
to  be  done  than  they  could  do  in  their  own 
persons.  In  the  beginning  they  had  found 
it  necessary  to  oversee  even  the  distribution 
of  food  to  the  poor.  It  was  in  order  that 
they  might  be  set  free  from  such  demands 
upon  their  time  and  strength  that  the  order 
of  deacons  was   instituted    (vi.   1-6).     But 

150 


The  Methods  of  Apostolic  Missions 

for  the  direction  of  the  spiritual  no  less  than 
of   the    temporal   interests   of   the    growing 
church  they  soon  found  that  they  needed 
helpers.     The   deacons  themselves,  Stephen 
and  Philip  in  particular,  were  active  evangel- 
ists.    When  report  was  brought  that  con- 
verts had  been  gained  in  Antioch,  Barnabas 
was  delegated  to  go  thither  to  direct  and 
confirm  the  work  (xi.   22).     When  dispute 
arose  as  to  whether  Gentile  converts  must  be 
circumcised,   Judas  and  Silas  were  sent  to 
bear  the  decision  of  the  apostles  in  the  mat- 
ter to  the  church  in  Antioch  (xv.  22).     And 
as  in  so  many  other  respects,  so  also  in  this 
ability  to  make  use  of  helpers,  Paul  was  the 
missionary  par   excellence   of    the   primitive 
church.      Few  things  contributed  more  di- 
rectly to  his  success  than   this  faculty  for 
utilizing  others  in  the  work  of   the  gospel, 
this  power  to  attract  and  bind  to  himself,  to 
train   and   direct,  a  great   company  of  co- 
laborers,  through  whom  he  multiplied  him- 
self a  hundredfold.     From  the  day  on  which 
he  sets  forth  with  Barnabas  and  Mark  from 
Antioch   we    see    him   alone   but   once,   in 
Athens,  and  even  there  he  has  sent  for  Silas 
and  Timothy,  left  behind  in  Bercea,  to  come 

151 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

to  him  with  all  speed  (xvii.  15).  Silas  he 
had  associated  with  himself  in  Antioch  be- 
fore setting  out  on  this  journey  (xv.  40). 
Timothy  he  had  found  in  Lystra  (xvi.  3). 
Already,  as  it  seems,  the  apostle's  child  in  the 
faith  (1  Tim.  i.  2),  the  young  Lystran  now  be- 
comes his  work-fellow  in  the  Gospel  (Rom.  xvi. 
21),  destined  to  remain  to  the  last  his  trusted 
helper  and  friend.  In  Derbe,  whether  on 
this  journey  or  at  some  later  time  we  do  not 
know,  he  laid  hold  on  Gaius,  who  was  with 
him  when  he  went  to  Jerusalem  for  the  last 
time  (Acts  xx.  4).  At  Troas  he  adds  to  his 
company  Luke,  the  beloved  physician,  of 
whom  he  could  write  from  under  the  very 
shadow  of  martyrdom,  "  Only  Luke  is  with 
me  "  (2  Tim.  iv.  11).  And  indeed  there  is 
scarce  a  city  visited  by  Paul  which  did  not 
yield  him  one  or  more  such  helpers.  From 
Thessalonica,  for  example,  came  Secundus 
and  Aristarchus  (Acts  xx.  4),  the  latter  of 
whom  was  afterward  his  companion  in  im- 
prisonment (Col.  iv.  10).  In  Beroea  he 
found  Sopater  (Acts  xx.  4);  in  Corinth, 
Erastus  (Rom.  xvi.  23),  and  Aquila  and 
Priscilla,  until  the  end  his  fellow-workers  in 
Christ  Jesus,  who  on  some  occasion  unknown 

152 


The  Methods  of  Apostolic  Missions 

to  us  risked  their  lives  to  save  his  (Rom. 
xvi.  3,  4).  From  Ephesus  he  drew  Troph- 
imus  (Acts  xxi.  29),  and  perhaps  also  Tychi- 
cus,  who  was  certainly  of  Asia  (Acts  xx.  4). 
In  Rome  he  laid  hold  on  Onesimus,  the  run- 
away slave,  to  send  him  forth  in  due  time 
with  Tychicus  to  Colossse,  as  the  faithful 
and  beloved  brother  (Col.  iv.  9).  From 
Colossee  came  Epaphraditus  or  Epaphras 
(Col.  iv.  12),  whom  Paul  calls  his  brother 
and  fellow-worker  and  fellow-soldier,  who 
for  the  work  of  Christ  came  nigh  to  death, 
and  hazarded  his  life  to  supply  the  apostle's 
need  (Phil.  ii.  25,  30).  And  time  would  fail 
us  to  tell  of  others  his  fellow-laborers  whose 
names  are  in  the  book  of  life,  whom  his  lov- 
ing salutations  have  preserved  to  us :  of 
Titus,  whom  he  honored  with  an  epistle,  and 
who  next  to  Luke  and  Timothy  was  dear 
and  useful  to  him  ;  of  Urbanus,  his  fellow- 
worker,  and  Quartus,  the  brother ;  of  Clem- 
ent and  Rufus  and  Onesiphorus  and  Crescens 
and  Artemas;  of  Zenas  the  lawyer;  of 
Apollos  the  eloquent ;  of  those  women  also 
who  labored  with  him  in  the  gospel,  Euodia, 
Syntyche,  Phoebe,  Mary,  Persis  the  beloved, 
Tryphaena  and  Tryphosa,  who  labored  much 

153 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

in  the  Lord;  of  some,  alas,  who  proved 
unworthy  of  his  confidence,  Demas,  Hyme- 
nseus,  Philetus,  Alexander  the  coppersmith, 
Phygellus  and  Hermogenes,  who  concerning 
the  faith  made  shipwreck. 

And  what  varied  uses  did  Paul  make  of 
these  lieutenants !  Sometimes  he  sends 
them  before  him,  as  he  did  Timothy  and 
Erastus  when  he  was  intending  to  go  into 
Macedonia  (Acts  xix.  22).  At  other  times 
he  left  them  behind  him,  as  he  seems  to  have 
left  Luke  in  Philippi  (cf.  Acts  xvi.  16,  xx.  6), 
and  as  he  certainly  left  Silas  and  Timothy  in 
Bercea  (Acts  xvii.  14),  and  Aquila  and  Pris- 
cilla,  and  afterward  Timothy,  at  Ephesus 
(Acts  xviii.  19,  1  Tim.  i.  3).  Often  he 
charged  them  with  special  duties.  Thus  he 
committed  to  Titus  the  matter  of  the  collec- 
tion to  be  made  among  the  churches  of  Mace- 
donia for  the  poor  saints  in  Jerusalem  (2 
Cor.  viii.  6),  and  left  him  in  Crete  to  set  in 
order  the  things  that  were  wanting  and  ap- 
point elders  in  every  city  (Tit.  i.  5).  Thus 
he  sent  Timothy  to  Corinth  to  put  the  church 
there  in  remembrance  of  his  ways  in  Christ 
(1  Cor.  iv.  17),  and  left  him  in  Ephesus  to 
withstand   false   teachers   (1    Tim.  i.  3,  4). 

154 


The  Methods  of  Apostolic  Missions 

Often  he  makes  them  the  bearers  of  his  let- 
ters, as  Phoebe  was  of  that  to  the  Romans 
(Rom.  xvi.  1),  as  Tychicus  was  of  those  to 
the  Colossians  (Col.  iv.  7)  and  the  Ephesians 
(Eph.  vi.  21),  as  Epaphras  was  of  that  to  the 
beloved  Philippians  (Phil.  ii.  25ff.),  and 
Onesimus  of  the  short  but  precious  one  to 
his  master  Philemon  (Philem.  12).  And  as 
he  entrusts  these  messengers  with  his  letters, 
he  charges  them  to  bring  him  word  again  of 
his  converts,  whether  they  stand  fast  in  the 
faith. 

It  is  instructive,  also,  to  note  how  Paul 
kept  himself  in  quick  spiritual  touch  with 
these  helpers;  how  he  encourages,  advises, 
cautions,  reproves  them,  bidding  Timothy  to 
suffer  hardship  as  a  good  soldier  of  Jesus 
Christ  (2  Tim.  ii.  3),  and  Titus  to  let  no  man 
despise  him  (Ti.  ii.  15),  and  Archippus  to 
take  heed  to  fulfill  his  ministry  (Col.  iv.  17), 
and  Euodia  and  Syntyche  to  be  of  the  same 
mind  in  the  Lord  (Phil.  iv.  2);  how  he  leans 
on  their  help  and  sympathy ;  how,  above,  all 
he  loves  them  and  prays  for  them  with  a  love 
that  makes  us  think  of  the  love  of  Jesus  for 
the  twelve.  And,  indeed,  there  is  no  other 
comparison  which  will  so  fitly  embody  this 

155 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

noble  cooperation  between  Paul  and  bis  mis- 
sionary associates.  He  was  like  a  general  in  tbe 
midst  of  his  aides,  making  even  his  dungeon 
at  Rome  headquarters  of  the  army  in  the 
field ;  but  it  was  not  the  power  of  military 
discipline  that  secured  obedience  to  his  com- 
mands. He  was  like  the  head  of  a  great 
commercial  house,  having  his  factors  in  every 
important  city;  but  it  was  not  for  pay  that 
his  agents  went  and  came  and  served.  Had 
the  Saviour  remained  on  earth  in  person  to 
direct  His  disciples  in  the  work  of  missions, 
would  not  His  relation  to  them  have  been 
something  like  this  which  Paul  sustained  to 
this  company  of  loving  work-fellows?  Nay, 
was  it  not  just  because  the  Saviour  was  ful- 
filling His  promise  to  be  with  His  disciples 
always  that  this  fellowship  in  the  gospel  was 
what  it  was  ? 

One  other  means  the  apostles  had  of  mak- 
ing effective  this  method  of  oversight.  It 
has  been  already  suggested  in  connection 
with  the  names  of  Phoebe,  Tychicus,  Onesi- 
mus.  It  was  by  the  use  of  the  pen.  One 
of  the  arguments  that  we  hear  employed 
in  support  of  missions  is  that  to  missions 
we  owe  our  own  religious  privileges.     The 

156 


The  Methods  of  Apostolic  Missions 

Christian  civilization  which  the  Pilgrims 
brought  with  them  in  the  Mayflower  was  it- 
self, we  are  reminded,  the  fruit  of  missions. 
The  plea  is  a  sound  one ;  but  is  it  not  far 
more  important  for  us  to  remember  that  it  is 
to  missions  that  we  are  indebted  for  the  New 
Testament  itself?  There  is  scarcely  one  of 
its  twenty-seven  books  that  does  not  bear 
the  missionary  impress.  The  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  is  the  history  of  primitive  missions. 
Every  other  book,  except  those  briefest  ones, 
Philemon,  Jude,  2d  and  3d  John,  and  the 
last  of  all,  the  Apocalypse,  was  written  in 
response  to  the  missionary  exigencies  of  the 
growing  church.  As  to  the  epistles  of  Paul 
this  is  obvious,  and  no  less  so  as  to  those  of 
Peter  and  James  and  the  first  of  John.  All 
these  were  penned  because  their  missionary 
authors  felt  themselves  to  be  overseers  of  the 
churches,  responsible  for  their  faith,  polity, 
conduct,  life.  And  did  not  the  Gospels 
spring  out  of  the  same  sense  of  responsi- 
bility? Two  of  them  were  written  by  mis- 
i  sionary  lieutenants  of  Paul,  and  the  special 
adaptation,  so  often  pointed  out,  of  Matthew 
to  the  Jews,  of  Mark  to  the  Romans,  of  Luke 
to  the  Greeks,  and  of  John  to  the  Christians, 

157 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

confirms  the  suggestion  of  their  missionary 
purpose.  It  was  not  the  mere  impulse  of 
authorship  which  prompted  the  evangelists ; 
it  was  not  simple  love  for  the  Saviour  whose 
earthly  history  they  record ;  it  was,  as  the 
prologue  to  the  third  Gospel  (Luke  i.  1-4) 
and  the  last  verses  of  the  central  portion  of 
the  fourth  (John  xx.  30,  31)  make  evident, 
the  practical  purpose  to  put  into  the  hands 
of  the  disciples,  already  won  and  yet  to  be 
won  as  the  fruits  of  apostolic  missions,  a  rec- 
ord of  the  great  facts  upon  which  their  faith 
was  founded. 

We  have  seen  that  the  first  missionaries 
were  preachers,  and  that  they  were  over- 
seers, superintending  in  person,  by  deputies, 
and  by  letter  the  affairs  of  the  multiplying 
churches.  Let  us  glance  at  one  other  agency 
which  they  employed,  the  agency  of  miracles. 
If  Mark  xvi.  9-20  be  canonical,  the  Saviour 
indicated  this  also  as  a  missionary  method. 
For  there  we  read  (ver.  15n\),  "  And  he  said 
unto  them,  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and 
preach  the  gospel  to  the  whole  creation.  He 
that  believeth  and  is  baptized,  shall  be  saved; 
but  he  that  disbelieveth  shall  be  condemned. 
And  these  signs  shall  follow  them  that  be- 

158 


The  Methods  of  Apostolic  Missions 

lieve :  in  my  name  shall  they  cast  out  devils ; 
they  shall  speak  with  new  tongues;  they 
shall  take  up  serpents,  and  if  they  drink  any 
deadly  thing,  it  shall  in  no  wise  hurt  them ; 
they  shall  lay  hands  on  the  sick,  and  they 
shall  recover."  Now  irrespective  of  any 
opinion  one  may  hold  as  to  the  genuineness 
of  these  verses,  or  as  to  the  specific  meaning 
of  the  words,  "  These  signs  shall  follow  them 
that  believe,"  it  is  manifest  that  both  the 
eleven  and  Paul  did  possess  such  miraculous 
powers  as  are  here  described,  and  did  make 
use  of  them  in  connection  with  their  work  as 
missionaries.  In  illustration  we  need  only 
cite  the  phenomena  of  the  day  of  Pentecost 
(Acts  ii.  4) ;  the  miracles  of  mercy  wrought 
by  Peter  on  the  lame  man  at  the  Beautiful 
Gate  (iii.  1-10),  on  iEneas  at  Lydda,  and  on 
Dorcas  at  Joppa  (ix.  32-43),  and  by  Paul  on 
the  cripple  of  Lystra  (xiv.  8ff.),  and,  by 
means  of  handkerchiefs  or  aprons  that  had 
come  in  contact  with  his  person,  on  a  multi- 
tude of  sick  folk  at  Ephesus  (xix.  11,  12) ; 
and  the  miracles  of  judgment  worked  by 
Peter  on  Ananias  and  Sapphira  (v.  1-11), 
and  by  Paul  on  Elymas  (xiii.  11,  12).  Nor 
should  it  be  overlooked  that  in  several  of 

159 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

these  instances  Luke  makes  note  of  the  effect 
of  the  miracle  in  attracting  attention  to  the 
gospel  and  furthering  the  extension  of  the 
church.  Thus  the  narrative  of  the  healing 
of  -^Eneas  closes  with  the  statement  that 
"  All  that  dwelt  in  Lydcla  and  Sharon  saw 
him,  and  they  turned  to  the  Lord,"  and  that 
of  the  raising  of  Dorcas  with  these  words, 
uAnd  it  became  known  throughout  all  Joppa, 
and  many  believed  on  the  Lord '  (ix.  35,  42). 
The  effect  of  the  judgment  upon  Ely  mas  was 
that  "the  pro-consul,  when  he  saw  what  was 
done,  believed,  being  astonished  at  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Lord"  (xiii.  12).  The  result  of  the 
special  miracles  wrought  by  Paul  at  Ephesus, 
and  of  the  discomfiture  of  the  sons  of  Sceva, 
who  attempted  to  "do  in  like  manner  with 
their  enchantments,"  was  that  "fear  fell 
upon  all  the  Jews  and  Greeks  that  dwelt  at 
Ephesus,  and  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
was  magnified  ....  and  not  a  few  of  those 
who  practiced  magical  arts  brought  their 
books  together  and  burned  them  in  the  sight 

of  all So  mightily  grew  the  word  of 

the  Lord  and  prevailed"  (xix.  17-20). 

And  this  power  of  miracle  was  not  a  thing 
exercised  on  rare  occasions  only,  or  by  but  a 

160 


The  Methods  of  Apostolic  Missions 

few  persons.     It  seems  rather  to  have  been  a 
characteristic  feature  of  primitive  missions. 
Paul  wrote  to  the  Romans  that  it  was  by  word 
and  deed,  in  the  power  of  signs  and  wonders, 
that  from   Jerusalem  to   Illvricum   he   had 
preached  the  gospel  of  Christ  (Rom.  xv.  18- 
20);  and  he  reminds  the  Corinthians  that  the 
signs  of  an  apostle  were  wrought  by  him 
among  them  in  signs  and  wonders  and  mighty 
works  (2  Cor.  xii.  12).     Nor  was  it  otherwise 
with  the  eleven.     The  first  of  those  general 
statements  as  to  the  condition  of  the  church, 
with   which   Luke   periodically   breaks   the 
thread  of  his  narrative  in  the  Acts,  includes 
the  particular  that  "many  wonders  and  signs 
were  done  by  the  apostles  "  (ii.  43) ;  and  in 
the  prayer  recorded  in  chap.  iv.  23fT.,  the 
petition  that  the  Lord  would  grant  to  His 
servants  to  speak  the  word  with  all  bold- 
ness is  immediately  followed  by  the  request 
that   He  would  stretch  forth  His  hand  to 
heal,  and  that  signs  and  wonders  might  be 
done  through  the  name  of  Jesus,  as  though 
preaching   and   miracles  were   usually  con- 
joined in  apostolic  practice.     But  it  was  not 
the   apostles   exclusively  who   enjoyed   and 
used  supernatural  endowments.    Of  Stephen 

161 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

also,  and  of  Philip,  it  is  written  that  they 
wrought  miracles  (vi.  8,  viii.  6,  7) ;  and  from 
several  allusions  in  the  Acts  to  the  power  of 
speaking  with  tongues  (x.  46,  xix.  6),  and 
from  the  closing  portion  of  the  first  letter  to 
the  Corinthians,  chaps,  xii.-xiv.  in  particular, 
we  learn  that  there  was  a  wide  diffusion  of 
miraculous  gifts  in  the  primitive  church. 

Into  the  vexed  question  of  the  exact  nature 
of  these  charismata  it  is  not  necessary  here 
to  enter.  The  two  powers  which  are  of 
special  interest  from  the  point  of  view  of 
missions  are  the  gift  of  healing  and  the  gift 
of  tongues.  We  may  be  certain  that  these, 
as  well  as  other  endowments,  were  intended 
for  practical  use,  not  for  mere  show.  Indeed, 
Paul  estimates  their  relative  value  on  the 
scale  of  their  relative  usefulness,  particularly 
for  the  edification  of  believers  (1  Cor.  xiv.). 
Yet  what  he  says  (vers.  23-25)  as  to  the  con- 
victing power  of  prophesying  upon  the  un- 
believer who  should  happen  to  be  present 
in  a  Christian  assembly  shows  that  these 
powers  had  relation  to  the  extension  of  the 
church  as  well  as  to  its  edification. 

Nor  is  there  any  sufficient  reason  to  doubt 
that  the  charismata  of  the  Epistles  are  the 

162 


The  Methods  of  Apostolic  Missions 

same  with  the  miraculous  powers  descrihed 
in  the  Acts.  If  so,  their  missionary  function 
has  already  been  made  evident.  And  if  ob- 
jection be  made,  with  reference  to  the  gift  of 
tongues,  that,  after  the  day  of  Pentecost,  we 
have  no  evidence  that  it  was  used  to  make  the 
gospel  message  more  intelligible,  and  that  the 
wide  diffusion  of  the  Greek  language  made 
such  a  use  needless,  may  it  not  be  that  it  is 
just  this  prevalence  of  Greek  as  the  lingua 
franca  of  the  Roman  world  that,  at  the  same 
time,  suggests  the  practical  purpose  of  the 
gift  itself,  and  explains  the  silence  of  the 
record,  after  Acts  ii.,  as  to  its  actual  use  in 
the  extension  of  the  church?  That  which 
impressed  the  foreign  Jews  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost  was  not  that  they  understood  the 
apostles,  for  this  they  would  still  have  done 
had  the  preachers  all  spoken  in  Greek.  It 
was  that  they  "  heard  each  man  in  his  own 
tongue  wherein  he  was  born.,,  This  fact 
gave  the  apostles'  words  a  power  which  they 
could  not  otherwise  have  had.  May  it  not 
be  that  the  first  missionaries  often  availed 
themselves  of  the  gift  of  tongues  to  secure 
the  same  added  power  for  their  message,  and 

yet  that  no  prominence  is  given  in  the  narra- 

153 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

tive  to  the  use  of  the  gift  which  secured  it, 
because  this  increment  of  power,  while  im- 
portant in  itself,  was  so  unimportant  in  com- 
parison with  the  fact  that  the  Greek  tongue 
made  the  Gospel,  whether  spoken  or  written, 
universally  intelligible. 


164 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  METHODS  OF  MODEEN  MISSIONS 

If  we  begin  our  study  of  modern  methods 
in  missions  by  seeking  to  understand  their 
geographical  plan,  it  deserves  notice,  in  the 
first  place,  that  in  our  age,  no  less  than  in  that 
of  the  apostles,  the  guiding  hand  was  God's. 
Allusion  was  made  in  a  preceding  chapter  to 
the  providential  circumstances  which  led  to 
the  location  of  the  Danish-Halle  mission  in 
Tranquebar,  and  of  the  earliest  Moravian  mis- 
sions in  Greenland  and  the  West  Indies.  The 
history  of  modern  missions  furnishes  many 
other  striking  instances  of  the  same  sort. 
Carey's  purpose,  formed  under  the  influence 
of  the  narrative  of  Cook's  voyages,  was  to 
go  to  Otaheite  ;  but  just  when  the  newly 
formed  Baptist  Missionary  Society,  at  its 
third  meeting,  had  decided  that  among  other 
articles  "  to  be  examined  and  discussed  in 
the  most  diligent  and  impartial  manner  was 
the  question,  'In  what  part  of  the  heathen 
world  do  there  seem  to  be  the  most  promis- 

165 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

ing  openings?',"  the  appeal  of  Dr.  John 
Thomas,  a  surgeon  in  the  employ  of  the 
East  India  Company,  decided  the  matter. 
At  the  next  meeting  of  the  society,  Thomas 
was  present,  and  made  his  plea  for  Bengal 
in  person.  Then  it  was  that  these  pioneers 
of  modern  missions  "  saw,"  to  quote  the 
words  of  Andrew  Fuller,  "  that  there  was  a 
gold  mine  in  India,  but  it  was  deep  as  the 
centre  of  the  earth,"  and  that  Carey  offered 
to  go  down  into  it,  if  only  his  friends  would 
"hold  the  ropes." 

Judson  meant  to  labor  in  India,  and  ac- 
tually arrived  in  Calcutta.  But  the  East 
India  Company  refused  him  permission  to 
settle  in  their  dominions,  and  were  about  to 
deport  him  to  England.  In  answer  to  his 
earnest  entreaties  he  was  permitted  to  sail 
for  Mauritius.  After  spending  four  months 
on  this  island,  he  decided  to  open  a  mission 
in  Penang,  in  the  Straits  of  Malacca.  With 
this  in  view  he  took  ship  to  Madras.  His 
presence  in  India  was  at  once  reported  to  the 
governor-general,  and  he  was  again  in  immi- 
nent peril  of  being  sent  to  England.  Mean- 
while, the  only  vessel  in  Madras  harbor  that 
was  bound  in  the  direction  of  Penang  was 

166 


The  Methods  of  Modern  Missions 

the  Georgianna,  for  Rangoon.  Judson  con- 
fessed in  later  life  that  Burmah  was  "the 
one  country  of  the  East  of  which  he  had  a 
horror."  But  it  was  Burmah  or  England, 
and  he  chose  Burmah ! 

In  1786,  Dr.  Thomas  Coke,  of  the  Wes- 
leyan  Methodist  Church,  set  sail  for  Nova 
Scotia;  but  the  vessel  was  compelled,  by 
stress  of  weather,  to  put  in  to  Antigua  in 
the  West  Indies.  Here  the  spiritual  destitu- 
tion of  the  Negro  slaves  so  moved  Dr.  Coke 
that  he  decided  to  remain,  and  thus  began  a 
work  which  was  not  only  fruitful  of  good  to 
the  West  Indies,  but  was  also  one  of  the 
means  used  of  God  to  fire  the  missionary 
zeal  of  William  Carey. 

Livingstone's  first  thought  of  missions  as  a 
personal  duty  was  roused  by  reading  Dr.  Karl 
GutzlafT's  appeal  on  behalf  of  China,  and  it 
was  to  China  that  the  great  Scotchman  pro- 
posed to  devote  his  life ;  but  the  directors  of 
the  London  Missionary  Society,  having  been 
deterred  from  appointing  him  to  the  West 
Indies  only  by  the  consideration  that  the 
two  years  he  had  spent  in  the  study  of  medi- 
cine would,  in  that  field,  be  largely  thrown 
away,  and  being  of  opinion  that  his  gifts  did 

167 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

not  fit  him  for  India,  determined  to  send 
him  to  Africa.  By  these  instances,  among 
many  of  a  like  sort,  is  it  not  made  plain  that 
the  geographical  plan  of  modern  missions 
has  been  drawn  by  the  Lord  Himself? 

And,  second,  it  is  to  be  noted  that,  under 
this  divine  guidance,  the  church  of  our  age 
has  established  her  mission  work  in  the  great 
centres  of  political,  commercial,  intellectual, 
and  religious  influence  in  the  heathen  world. 
It  is  true  that  Carey  was  prevented  from 
establishing  himself  in  Calcutta,  and  had  to 
take  refuge,  with  Marshman  and  Ward  un- 
der the  protection  of  the  Danish  flag  at 
Serampore,  sixteen  miles  distant.  But  two 
things  are  worthy  of  remark :  Serampore, 
while  politically  and  commercially  unim- 
portant, was  the  very  centre  of  the  hor- 
rid Juggernaut  cult;  and  the  foothold  in 
Calcutta  which  the  East  India  Company  at 
first  refused  to  Carey,  it  soon  unwittingly 
gave  him  by  appointing  him  professor  of 
Bengali  and  Sanskrit  in  Fort  William  Col- 
lege. This  position,  we  may  add,  he  contin- 
ued to  hold  for  thirty  years,  and  from  it  de- 
rived a  salary  first  of  <£700,  and  then  of  £1800 
per  annum,  all  of  which  he  turned  into  the 

168 


The  Methods  of  Modern  Missions 

common  fund  of  the  Serampore  Brotherhood. 
Nor  does  it  require  any  special  acquaintance 
with  India  and  the  East  to  enable  one  to  un- 
derstand that  the  very  names  of  the  cities 
where  he  and  his  associates  caused  stations 
to  be  opened — Nagpore,  Surat,  Allahabad, 
Cawnpore,  Delhi,  Benares,  Rangoon,  Penang 
— indicate  how  closely,  in  his  geographical 
plan  of  missions,  this  modern  missionary  gen- 
eral followed  the  example  of  Paul. 

Not  that  Carey  made  no  mistakes  in  this 
matter.  He  made  grave  mistakes,  no  doubt, 
and  many  have  been  made  since.  But  in  spite 
of  all  mistakes,  the  man  who  should  have  ac- 
companied Dr.  Bainbridge  in  1880,  or  Dr. 
Lawrence  in  1886,  on  their  round-the-world 
tours  of  missionary  investigation,  could  with- 
out fear  boast  that  he  had  been  in  every 
great  city  of  the  heathen  world.  If  there  is 
any  ground  for  criticism,  it  is  not  that  the 
great  centres  of  influence  have  not  been 
seized,  but  rather,  as  the  last-named  traveler 
kindly  but  earnestly  urges,  that  there  has 
not  been  a  sufficient  measure  of  cooperation 
and  comity  in  apportioning  these  strategic 
centres,  and  the  districts  of  which  they  are 
the  mighty  hearts,  among  the  great  churches 

169 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

and  societies.  Important  as  Tokio  and  Shang- 
hai are,  it  may  be  questioned  whether  there 
is  room  for  fourteen  societies  to  work  from 
the  one,  and  eleven  from  the  other.  But 
until  we  have  learned  to  exercise  more  wis- 
dom and  grace  in  this  very  matter  in  our 
work  at  home,  we  may  well  hesitate  to  cast 
a  stone  at  those  who,  under  vastly  greater 
difficulties,  are  directing  the  mission  work 
abroad. 

Passing  now  from  the  geographical  plan  of 
modern  missions  to  a  survey  of  modern  mis- 
sionary methods,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the 
term,  our  first  impression  is  that  these  are 
far  more  numerous  than  those  made  use  of 
by  the  apostles.  Five  great  agencies  are  us- 
ually enumerated  :  the  evangelistic,  the  edu- 
cational, the  literary,  the  medical,  and  the 
industrial.  Besides,  there  are,  as  Dr.  Law- 
rence suggests  (Modern  Missions  in  the  East, 
chap,  vii.),  several  other  activities  demanding 
much  time  and  labor  on  the  part  of  the  mis- 
sionary :  such  as  teaching  converts  to  sing ; 
superintending  the  erection  of  mission  build- 
ings,— schoolhouses,  chapels,  dispensaries; 
keeping  accounts ;  purchasing  and  forward- 
ing supplies ;  advising  the  native  Christians 

170 


The  Methods  of  Modern  Missions 

in  a  great  variety  of  matters ;  and  advocating 
and  furthering  various  social  and  political  re- 
forms. In  defense  of  these  apparently  more 
varied  activities,  it  might  be  pleaded,  first, 
that  the  apostles  themselves  were  inclined  to 
be  tolerant  in  the  matter  of  methods.  Ready 
to  condemn  unsparingly  any  who  adulterated 
the  gospel,  they  were  ready,  also,  to  admit 
a  large  variety  in  the  methods  of  applying 
the  gospel  to  the  needs  of  men.  To  this  at- 
titude they  were  led  by  the  very  profusion 
of  the  charismata.  They  could  not  but  recog- 
nize wide  diversities  of  operation  as  thor- 
oughly consistent  with  the  indwelling  of  one 
Spirit,  and  as  all  tending  to  the  one  end  of 
extending  and  building  up  the  church,  the 
body  of  Christ,  The  apostles  believed,  too, 
as  we  have  seen,  in  the  adaptation  of  their 
methods  to  meet  the  special  circumstances  in 
which  they  might  find  themselves ;  and  while 
we  abate  nothing  of  what  was  said  in  a  for- 
mer chapter  as  to  the  essential  similarity  of 
the  mission  problem  in  modern  times  to  that 
which  presented  itself  to  the  apostles,  we 
may  at  the  same  time  admit  that  there  are 
differences  in  the  details  of  the  two  situations 
which  may  well  justify  some  differences  of 

171 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

method.  This  remark  applies  particularly 
to  those  minor  activities,  hardly  deserving 
the  name  of  missionary  methods,  referred  to 
by  Dr.  Lawrence.  Notwithstanding  such 
differences,  we  believe  that  it  can  be  shown 
that  the  main  outlines  of  missionary  method 
to-day  are  the  same  as  in  the  first  age  of  the 
church. 

In  proof  of  this  contention,  it  is  a  joy  to 
be  able  to  say,  and  that  without  fear  of  suc- 
cessful contradiction,  that  in  modern  as  in 
apostolic  missionary  practice,  the  method 
most  emphasized  is  the  preaching  of  the  Gos- 
pel. To  this  method  more  time  and  strength 
are  given  than  to  any  other,  if,  indeed,  we 
may  not  say,  than  to  all  others  combined. 
It  is  true  that  this  fact  is  not  always  apparent 
to  the  casual  observer.  The  apparatus  em- 
ployed in  preaching  may  be,  often  is,  less  no- 
ticeable than  that  required  for  education, 
or  literary  work,  or  medical  missions.  Ed- 
ucation means  school  buildings,  sometimes 
of  an  imposing  sort ;  medical  work  requires 
hospitals  and  dispensaries ;  literary  work  in- 
volves press-rooms,  it  may  be,  or  Bible 
houses.  Preaching  may  or  may  not  presup- 
pose chapels.     If  it  does,  these  will  often  not 

172 


The  Methods  of  Modern  Missions 

be  distinguishable  from  the  structures  that 
surround  them,  whether  shops  in  the  city  or 
cottages  in  the  country.  The  only  real  es- 
sentials for  preaching  are  a  preacher  and  an 
audience.  In  the  valuable  article  on  "  Meth- 
ods of  Mission  Work"  in  the  Encyclopaedia 
of  Missions,  we  are  told  of  a  Christian  gen- 
tleman on  a  visit  to  Constantinople,  who, 
after  having  seen  Robert  College,  the  Amer- 
ican College  for  Girls,  the  Bible  House,  and 
the  school  and  dispensary  of  the  Free  Church 
Mission,  said  that  he  was  glad  to  find  so 
much  good  work  being  done,  but  sorry  to  see 
so  little  preaching.  "  Come  with  me  on  Sun- 
day," said  his  missionary  guide.  Then  he 
led  him  from  one  end  of  the  city  to  the  other, 
and  in  Stamboul,  Galata,  Scutari,  Hasskeuey, 
showed  him  gathering  after  gathering,  where 
preaching  to  audiences  ranging  from  seventy- 
five  to  three  hundred  was  going  on,  in  Turk- 
ish, Armenian,  Greek,  Spanish,  and  English. 
The  same  thing  might  have  happened  to  a 
traveler  in  Peking  or  Shanghai  or  Canton,  in 
Calcutta  or  Bombay,  in  any  great  centre  of 
missionary  work  in  the  heathen  world. 

But  let  no  one  suppose  that  the  preaching 
of  missionaries  is  confined  to  the  Sabbath  and 

173 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

to  stated  places.  Of  them,  as  truly  as  of  the 
first  Christians,  may  it  be  said  that  they  "go 
everywhere  preaching  the  word,"  and  that 
they  claim  all  times  and  places  for  delivering 
their  message.  "  You  will  be  near  the  mark," 
writes  a  Chinese  missionary,  "if  you  imagine 
the  gospel  messenger  in  a  straw  hat  and  a 
pea  jacket,  sitting  on  a  broken  wall — there  is 
always  a  broken  wall  handy  in  a  village — or 
on  a  door-step,  or  on  a  form  at  the  front  of 
an  eating-house,  conversing  freely  with  a 
score  of  Chinamen,  all  of  whom,  perhaps, 
bear  some  mark  of  their  occupation,  while  a 
number  of  boys  in  very  scant  clothing  thrust 
themselves  to  the  front,  and  a  few  women 
linger  at  a  distance,  just  beyond  the  range  of 
hearing."  Mutatis  mutandis  the  picture 
would  be  equally  true  of  missionary  preach- 
ing in  any  of  the  great  mission  lands.  The 
present  writer  has  heard  the  gospel  pro- 
claimed in  native  chapels,  in  heathen  tem- 
ples, in  the  homes  of  the  common  people,  on 
the  veranda  of  the  missionary's  house,  in  the 
ward  of  the  mission  hospital,  in  the  market- 
place, at  the  boat-landing,  by  the  camp-fire  in 
the  jungle,  in  the  hovel  of  the  outcast,  in  the 

halls  of  princes,  and  the  palace  of  a  king. 

174 


The  Methods  of  Modern  Missions 

And  how  many  are  the  means  of  locomo- 
tion which  missionaries  adopt  as  they  thus 
go  forth  to  sow  beside  all  waters !  By  train 
or  steamboat,  where  they  can,  as  sometimes 
in  India  and  China  and  Japan  ;  by  jinriksha,  , 
by  ox -cart,  by  mule  litter,  by  wheelbarrow, 
by  sedan  chair,  by  bicycle  ;  slung  in  a  ham- 
mock on  a  pole  as  Hannington  was  in 
Africa;  mounted  on  horses,  or  mules,  or  ele- 
phants, or  camels,  or  astride  an  ox,  as  Living- 
stone made  his  first  journeys  ;  by  boats,  pro- 
pelled sometimes  by  steam,  more  often  by 
sails,  or  oars,  or  poles,  or  tracked  by  ropes  by 
power  of  man  or  beast;  by  canoe  and  clog- 
sledge  and  snowshoe,  as  Young  in  the  icy 
North  ;  oftenest  of  all  on  foot,  trudging  with 
Gilmour  across  the  dreary  plains  of  Mongo- 
lia, floundering  with  Livingstone  through  the 
hopeless  swamps,  threading  with  Paton  the 
jungle  paths  of  New  Hebrides,  clambering 
with  Mackay  over  the  mountain  tracks  of 
Formosa,  toiling  with  McGilvary  up  the  beds 
of  the  brooks  that  come  down  from  the 
haunts  of  the  shy  Moo  Surs — so  the  heralds 
of  the  cross  go  forth  to  tell  their  story. 

And  how  many  forms  that  story  takes! 

Sometimes  the  formal  sermon;  far  more  often 

175 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

the  informal  address,  where  questions  are 
freely  allowed  and  skillful  objections  must, 
perhaps,  be  answered;  and  quite  as  often  the 
quiet  talk  with  a  single  inquirer,  as  Jesus 
talked  with  the  woman  at  the  well,  or  Philip 
with  the  eunuch  in  the  chariot.  And  as  the 
missionary  despises  no  place,  no  audience,  no 
form  of  address,  so  he  thinks  no  device  too 
trivial  that  will  serve  to  get  him  a  hearing. 
The  power  of  music,  whether  of  baby-organ, 
or  flute,  or  guitar,  or  violin,  or  even  hand- 
organ  ;  the  open  medicine  chest ;  the  book- 
stall ;  the  vivid  picture  on  the  lantern-screen; 
the  telescope  focused  on  a  distant  hill ;  his 
watch,  his  pocket-compass,  the  buttons  on 
his  coat ;  the  rubber  rattle  of  his  infant  child, 
if  need  be — any  of  these  will  serve  these 
modern  fishers  of  men  as  lure  for  their  hook. 
And  not  only  do  they  claim  all  times,  all 
places,  all  devices  for  attracting  attention, 
but  they  claim,  as  well,  all  classes  as  their 
auditors.  Carey  and  Duff  and  many  others 
after  them  took  special  measures  to  bring  the 
gospel  to  the  attention  of  the  highest  castes 
of  India.  The  Rev.  Gilbert  Reid  is  devot- 
ing himself  to-day  to  work  among  the  official 
classes  in  China.     Mackay  of  Uganda  used 

176 


The  Methods  of  Modern  Missions 

to  read  the  Bible  to  King  Mtesa  and  his 
court.  But  no  class  has  escaped  the  atten- 
tion of  the  missionary.  The  blind  of  China 
have  had  the  Scriptures  made  accessible  to 
them.  The  lepers  of  India  have  found  those 
who  lay  upon  their  souls  the  healing  touch 
of  gospel  love  and  truth.  The  lattices  and 
curtains  of  harems  and  zenanas  have  not 
shut  out  the  missionary  lady.  In  the  late 
war  between  China  and  Japan,  the  troops 
of  the  Sunrise  Kingdom  were  supplied  with 
pocket  copies  of  the  Gospel  of  John,  and  a 
missionary  and  four  native  pastors  pressed 
forward  with  them  to  the  front.  Let  us 
not  be  misled.  However  inconspicuous  this 
evangelism  may  be  in  the  eyes  of  globe-trot- 
ting visitors  to  the  great  cities  of  heathen- 
ism, or  even  on  the  pages  of  the  reports  that 
are  published  at  home,  it  is  the  chief  work  of 
modern  missions,  the  joy,  the  hope,  the  de- 
light, of  the  great  majority  of  missionaries. 

And  not  only  is  preaching  pushed  in  its 
own  proper  form,  but  it  utilizes,  in  many 
cases  it  has  created,  other  forms  of  mission- 
ary effort.  Medical  missions,  for  example,  is 
not  first  of  all  a  philanthropic,  but  an  evan- 
gelistic agency.    The  physician  is  a  preacher; 

177 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

the  dispensary  and  the  surgical  ward  are  also 
chapels.  In  a  recently  published  letter,  the 
physician  in  charge  of  the  hospital  at  Tung 
Cho,  China,  says  that  he  has  sometimes 
thought  that  the  lack  of  clocks  among  the 
Chinese  will  be  the  indirect  cause  of  salva- 
tion to  many  souls ;  for,  having  no  means  of 
telling  time  accurately,  his  patients  come  to 
the  hospital  long  in  advance  of  the  ap- 
pointed hour,  and  as  there  is  always  a  Bible 
woman  on  hand  to  talk  to  them,  they  receive 
much  instruction  in  Christian  truth.  Educa- 
tion, too,  is  pressed  into  the  service  of  evan- 
gelism, nay  is  often  chiefly  a  means  to  it.  In 
Mohammedan  lands,  the  school  platform  is 
the  only  pulpit  from  which  the  glad  tidings 
can  be  made  to  fall  on  Moslem  ears.  One 
chief  motive  of  Dr.  Duff's  great  work  as  an 
educator  in  India  was  that,  by  means  of  the 
school,  he  might  bring  the  gospel  to  bear  upon 
Brahman  youths  not  eas}^  to  be  reached  in 
any  other  way.  And  the  constant  reports  of 
conversions  among  the  pupils  of  mission 
schools  show  that  everywhere  missionaries 
are  alive  to  their  opportunity  to  preach  the 
gospel  through  the  school,  and  that  God  is 
honoring  their  fidelity.    This  subservience  of 

178 


The  Methods  of  Modern  Missions 

other  methods  to  the  evangelistic  finds  illus- 
tration also  from  the  literary  work  of  mis- 
sions. Much  of  this,  especially  that  which  is 
directed  to  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures 
and  the  production  and  diffusion  of  simple 
and  striking  gospel  tracts,  is  prompted  by 
evangelistic  motives.  Missionaries  have 
learned  that  the  printed  page,  while  it  cannot 
take  the  place  of  the  living  preacher,  may  be 
a  John  the  Baptist  to  prepare  his  way,  a 
Timothy  or  a  Titus  to  remain  behind  and  re- 
peat his  message. 

A  second  illustration  of  the  statement  that 
the  methods  of  present-day  missions  are  sub- 
stantially the  same  as  those  employed  in  the 
New  Testament  time,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
large  use  now  as  then  of  what  we  have  called 
the  method  of  supervision.  Missionaries  of 
to-day  lay  strong  stress  upon  preaching,  but 
they  are  not,  and,  in  the  face  of  the  needs  of 
heathenism  and  of  the  churches  in  heathen 
lands,  they  cannot  be,  content  to  be  preach- 
ers simply.  With  the  first  successes  gained 
by  the  truth  the}^  find  themselves  called  to  be 
more  than  preachers — apostles,  bishops,  su- 
perintendents, having  oversight  of  a  plurality 
of  churches  and  an  expanding  work.     In  a 

179 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

few  instances,  it  is  true,  missionaries  are  the 
nominal  pastors  of  native  churches,  but  even 
in  these  instances  they  do  not  devote  them- 
selves exclusively  to  the  care  of  their  charges 
as  pastors  do  at  home.  The}'  feel  themselves 
called  to  a  larger  work,  the  work  of  caring  for 
and  developing,  not  a  church,  but  churches, 
the  church.  Attention  was  called  in  Chapter 
II.  to  that  wonderful  passage  in  the  Articles 
of  Agreement  of  the  Serampore  Brotherhood, 
in  which  Carey's  mind  and  Ward's  pen  unite 
to  set  forth  the  relation  which,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  those  pioneers  of  organized  missions, 
the  missionary  should  sustain  to  the  native 
brethren,  the  native  churches,  the  native 
church.  The  eighth  of  those  articles,  after 
enlarging  upon  the  importance  of  setting 
native  pastors  over  the  churches,  wherever 
practicable,  adds,  "  These  churches  will  be  in 
no  immediate  danger  of  falling  into  errors  or 
disorders,  because  the  whole  of  their  affairs 
will  be  constantly  superintended  by  a  Euro- 
pean missionary.  The  advantages  of  this 
plan  are  so  evident  that  to  carry  it  into  com- 
plete effect  ought  to  be  our  continued  con- 
cern. That  we  may  discharge  the  important 
obligations   of  watching   over   these   infant 

180 


The  Methods  of  Modern  Missions 

churches  when  formed  ....  we  should  con- 
tinually go  to  the  Source  of  all  grace  and 
strength ;  for  if  to  become  the  shepherd  of 
one  church  be  a  most  solemn  and  weighty 
charge,  what  must  it  be  to  watch  over  a  num- 
ber of  churches  just  raised  from  a  state  of 
heathenism  and  placed  at  a  distance  from 
each  other  ?  " 

There  can  be  no  question  that  in  this  view 
of  missionary  duty  the  father  of  modern  mis- 
sions voiced  the  feeling  of  the  great  majority 
of  his  successors.  They  have  known  that  the 
word  of  God  is  seed,  and  have  counted  it  a 
blessed  thing  to  drop  a  grain  of  that  seed  into 
a  heathen  heart ;  but  they  have  known  also 
that  "  the  good  seed  are  the  children  of  the 
kingdom,"  and  have  believed  that  it  is  a  no 
less  blessed,  and  may  be  a  far  more  fruitful 
work,  to  plant  and  nurture  and  protect  those 
patches  of  living  seed-corn  from  which  at 
last  shall  come  the  universal  harvest.  They 
have  known  that  truth  is  light,  and  have  felt 
it  good  to  shed  that  light  upon  a  single  dark- 
ened heart;  but  they  have  known,  too,  that 
Christians  are  lights,  and  churches  are  light- 
houses, blazing  with  it  may  be  a  hundred,  or 
a  thousand,  or  a  million  candle-power,  and 

181 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

they  have  deemed  it  a  better  and  a  greater 
thing  to  see  that  everywhere  throughout 
some  wide  region  of  darkness  these  lesser  and 
greater  lights  are  kept  steadily  shining.  We 
have  found  this  out  at  home,  and  wherever, 
in  East  or  West,  there  are  conditions  even 
remotely  resembling  those  obtaining  on  the 
mission  field,  wherever,  that  is  to  say,  the 
churches  are  feeble  and  scattered,  we  choose 
a  man  of  large  experience,  sound  judgment, 
ready  tact,  and  high  power  of  leadership — 
call  him  secretary,  synodical  missionary,  pas- 
tor-at-large,  or  missionary  bishop — and  invest 
him  with  the  power  of  supervision. 

And  what  a  few  men  are  at  home,  almost 
every  missionary  is,  or  comes  at  last  to  be,  on 
heathen  soil.  "  The  missionary,"  says  Rev. 
C.  H.  Wheeler,  "  is  confined  to  no  one  city 
or  village,  is  the  occupant  of  no  one  pulpit, 
is  not  a  local  preacher,  but  an  apostolic  ex- 
plorer, to  range  and  map  out  the  country, 
and  direct  others,  whom  he  shall  select  and 
train  for  the  work,  where  to  do  the  labor  of 
local  preaching  "  {Ten  Years  on  the  Euphrates, 
p.  65).  "  In  the  early  part  of  his  life,"  writes 
Dr.  Blaikie,  with  regard  to  Livingstone,  "  he 
deemed  it  his  joy  and  honor  to  aim  at  the 

182 


The  Methods  of  Modern  Missions 

conversion  of  individual  souls,  and  earnestly 
did  he  labor  and  pray  for  that,  though  his 
visible  success  was  but  small.  But  as  he 
gets  better  acquainted  with  Africa,  and 
reaches  a  more  commanding  point  of  view, 
he  sees  the  necessity  for  other  work.  The 
continent  must  be  surveyed,  healthy  locations 
for  mission-stations  must  be  found,  the  temp- 
tations to  the  accursed  traffic  in  human  flesh 
must  be  removed,  the  products  of  the  country 
must  be  turned  to  account,  its  whole  social 
economy  must  be  changed.  The  accom- 
plishment of  such  objects,  even  in  a  limited 
degree,  would  be  an  immense  service  to  the 
missionaiy  ;  it  would  be  such  a  preparing  of 
his  way  that  a  hundred  years  hence  the 
spiritual  results  would  be  far  greater  than  if 
all  the  effort  were  now  concentrated  on 
single  souls.  To  many  persons  it  appeared 
as  if  dealing  with  individual  souls  were  the 
only  proper  work  of  a  missionary,  and  as  if 
one  who  had  been  doing  such  work  would 
be  lowering  himself  if  he  accepted  any  other. 
Livingstone  never  stopped  to  reason  as  to 
which  was  the  higher  or  more  desirable 
work ;  he  felt  that  Providence  was  calling 
him  to  be  less  of  a  missionary  journeyman 

183 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

and  more  of  a  missionary  statesman ;  but  the 
great  end  was  ever  the  same.  *  The  end  of 
the  geographical  feat  was  only  the  beginning 
of  the  enterprise  ' "  (Personal  Life  of  David 
Livingstone,  p.  189).  Dr.  Blaikie  is  right. 
He  who  was  found  dead  on  his  knees  in  the 
hut  beside  Bangweolo  was  not  Livingstone 
the  explorer,  but  Livingstone  the  missionary, 
missionary  statesman,  missionary  general. 
And  while  it  may  be  readily  admitted  that 
Livingstone  had  a  special  calling,  it  is  still 
true  that  there  is  scarcely  a  great  name  in 
missionary  annals  who  did  not  come  to  see 
that  he,  too,  was  called  to  be  no  longer  a 
mere  missionary  journeyman,  but  a  mission- 
ary statesman  and  general.  What  Heber 
and  Selwyn  and  Pattison  and  Hannington 
were  b}r  ecclesiastical  appointment,  Carey 
and  Duff  and  Judson,  Inglis  and  Paton, 
Nevius  and  Clough  and  Mackay,  have  been 
by  assignment  of  God's  providence,  mission- 
ary bishops  in  charge  of  wide  realms  and  a 
fast-extending  church. 

And  it  scarcely  needs  to  be  said  that,  in 
carrying  out  this  work  of  supervision,  the 
modern  missionary  follows  much  the  same 
lines  as  his  apostolic  prototype.     Often  he 

184 


The  Methods  of  Modern  Missions 

goes  in  person  among  the  churches  and  sta- 
tions, ordaining  elders,  administering  the  sac- 
raments, counseling  the  officers  and  leaders, 
deciding  difficult  questions,  correcting  errors, 
reforming  abuses,  stimulating  Christian  ac- 
tivity, catechising,  instructing.    And  he  does 
not  usually  go  alone,  but,  like  Paul,  has  with 
him  one  or  more  native  brethren,  who  minis- 
ter to  his  wants  and  assist  him  in  his  work. 
These  are  not  only  hands  to  serve  him,  but 
eyes  to  see,  ears  to  hear,  tongues  to  speak 
for  him.     Their  more  perfect  acquaintance 
with  heathen   character   and   custom,  their 
better  knowledge  of  the  language,  their  more 
ready  access  to  the  people,  enable  him  to  ac- 
complish by  their  help  what  he  could  never 
accomplish  without  it.    And  not  only  does  he 
take  them  with  him,  but  often  he  sends  them 
before  him  to  spy  out  the  land,  or  leaves  them 
behind  him  to  deepen  and  extend  the  impres- 
sions he  may  have  made ;  or  charges  them 
with  special  errands  of  instruction,  or  stimu- 
lus, or  discipline;  or  uses  them  as  evangelists, 
colporteurs,  school-teachers.     Meanwhile  he 
employs  every  means  to  deepen  and  broaden 
their  Christian  characters,  and  develop  their 
gifts,  and  increase  their  zeal  in  the  service  of 

185 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

Christ.  In  a  few  instances  this  end  is  sought 
by  means  of  a  regularly  organized  theologi- 
cal seminary,  having  a  permanent  faculty 
and  a  well-wrought  curriculum.  More  often 
resort  is  had  to  the  less  formal  training  class, 
held  at  seasons  of  the  year  when  agricultural 
operations  are  at  a  standstill,  taught,  it  may 
be,  by  a  single  missionary,  or  by  a  missionary 
and  his  wife,  and  using  a  course  of  study 
that  runs  the  gamut  from  reading  and  sing- 
ing to  theology  and  the  making  of  sermons. 
Oftenest  of  all,  dependence  must  be  placed 
upon  casual  and  informal  instructions  given 
by  the  missionary  at  odd  moments,  at  home, 
on  the  road,  or  by  the  camp-fire,  and  upon 
association  with  him  in  the  practical  work 
of  the  gospel. 

Are  there  any  miracles  in  modern  missions? 
It  would  seem  not,  unless  it  be  considered 
that  the  late  Dr.  J.  L.  Nevius  in  his  book, 
Demon  Possession  and  Allied  Themes,  has 
shown  that  Chinese  Christians  of  to-day  ex- 
orcise demons  by  prayer  and  the  use  of  the 
name  of  Jesus.  But  if  there  have  been  no 
miracles  in  the  sense  that  there  were  miracles 
in  the  apostolic  age,  there  have  been  miracles 
of  grace  not  less  striking.     If  there  has  been 

186 


The  Methods  of  Modern  Missions 

no  gift  of  tongues,  there  have  heen  wonders 
of  patience,  erudition,  linguistic  skill,  tri- 
umph over  innumerable  difficulties,  so  that 
at  last  the  heathen  of  every  nation  hear  and 
read  the  wonderful  works  of  God  in  their 
own  tongue  wherein  they  were  born.  If 
there  have  been  no  miracles  of  healing,  med- 
ical missions  have  been  hardly  less  effective, 
not  indeed  in  proving  divine  vocation,  but  in 
exhibiting  divine  compassion,  in  attracting 
attention,  in  dispelling  prejudice,  in  opening 
the  way  for  Him  who  can  say  to  the  sick  of 
the  palsy  not  merely,  "  Take  up  thy  bed  and 
walk,"  but  "  Man,  thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee." 
The  inter-relation  between  literary  work  in 
missions  and  both  the  evangelistic  and  super- 
visory activities  of  the  missionary  and  the 
help  that  medical  missions  render  in  the 
direct  proclamation  of  the  gospel  have  al- 
ready been  sufficiently  indicated.  Let  us 
take  a  moment  in  conclusion  to  consider  the 
other  great  method  of  modern  missions,  edu- 
cation. The  evangelistic  element  in  this  also 
has  already  been  pointed  out,  and  should 
never  be  lost  sight  of.  The  man  who  finds 
no  fault  with  Paul  because  he  availed  him- 
self of  the  love  of  the  Athenians  for  philo- 

187 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

sophical  discussion  in  order  to  preach  the 
gospel  to  them,  and  even  devotes  a  large 
part  of  his  address  to  dwelling  on  truths  of 
natural  religion  before  he  says  a  word  of 
Christ,  may  well  hesitate  to  attack  Dr.  Duff, 
when  he,  in  his  turn,  takes  advantage  of  the 
desire  of  the  Brahman  youth  of  Calcutta  for 
an  English  education  to  instill  gospel  truth 
into  their  minds,  and  judges  that  this  truth 
will  be  all  the  more  effective  when  accom- 
panied by  truth  of  a  scientific  or  even  a 
philosophical  kind.  Then  it  is  to  be  remem- 
bered that  education,  quite  as  much  as  liter- 
ary work,  stands  in  vital  relation  to  that 
other  great  method  in  missions  which  we 
have  called  the  supervisory,  and  which  has 
reference  to  the  development  and  training  of 
the  native  church.  If  a  missionary  is  to  be 
a  general,  he  must  have  his  trained  subordi- 
nates ;  if  he  is  to  be  a  bishop,  he  must  have 
his  inferior  clergy :  and  it  is  one  great  func- 
tion of  evangelistic  education  in  missions  to 
raise  up  and  equip  these  in  all  grades — school- 
teachers, elders,  Bible  readers,  evangelists, 
pastors,  leaders  of  religious  thought  and  life, 
the  Luthers,  Calvins,  Wesleys  of  heathen 
lands,  the  successors  of  the  missionary  him- 

188 


The  Methods  of  Modern  Missions 

self.  Let  us  admit  that  the  apostles  did  not 
establish  schools  nor  teach  them — though  the 
late  Dr.  A.  P.  Happer  maintained  that  in  the 
school  of  Tyrannus,  in  which  Paul  reasoned 
daily  with  the  disciples  of  Ephesus  (Acts 
xix.  9),  we  have  explicit  New  Testament 
sanction  for  the  mission-school — but  let  us 
remember  that  the  apostles  labored,  not 
among  barbarous  peoples,  but  among  the 
most  highly  civilized  peoples  of  their  day. 
Let  us  remember  that  much  of  what  the 
modern  missionary  strives  to  give  by  means 
of  the  mission-school — the  ability  to  read  the 
Scriptures,  the  quickening  of  dulled  minds, 
the  development  of  useful  gifts — had  in  great 
measure  been  given  to  the  people  of  the 
Roman  empire  through  the  diffusion  of  Greek 
culture  and  the  Greek  tongue,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  influence  of  the  sj^nagogue 
and  the  existence  of  the  Septuagint,  on  the 
other.  Let  us  remember  that  in  many  hea- 
then lands,  in  India  and  Japan  especially, 
,  the  question  is  whether  the  missionaries  shall 
give  the  youth  of  the  native  church,  and  some 
at  least  of  the  heathen,  an  education  that  is 
Christian,  or  allow  the  government  to  furnish 
an  education  wholly  secular,  it  may  be  even 

189 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

infidel.  Let  us  remember  that  the  same  forces 
which  pat  early  education  in  America  under 
the  care  of  the  church  and  the  ministry,  and 
led  to  the  establishment  of  schools  and  col- 
leges by  all  the  great  religious  bodies,  and 
even  to-day  justifies  these  in  maintaining 
boards  of  aid  for  colleges  and  academies,  op- 
erate no  less,  but  in  some  cases  far  more,  in 
heathen  lands,  and  vindicate  the  missionary  in 
providing  Christian  schools  for  Christian  and 
heathen  youth.  The  apostles  were  not  school- 
teachers, but  had  they  lived  in  the  nineteenth 
century  instead  of  the  first,  had  they  begun 
at  Calcutta  instead  of  at  Jerusalem,  had  their 
field  been  the  Indian  or  the  Chinese  empires 
instead  of  the  Roman,  is  it  not  more  than 
possible  that  they  would  have  seized  on  the 
school,  as  they  did  in  fact  upon  the  syna- 
gogue, as  a  great  agency  for  the  diffusion  of 
the  gospel,  and  is  it  not  likely  that  foremost 
among  them  in  this  as  in  all  else  would  have 
stood  that  matchless  missionary,  at  once  the 
Carey  and  the  Duff  of  the  infant  church, 
who  counted  himself  debtor  both  to  Greek 
and  barbarian,  to  wise  and  unwise,  and  who 
was  ready  to  use  any  means  if  only  he  might 
save  some  ? 

190 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  RESULTS   OF  APOSTOLIC  MISSIONS 

When  Paul,  on  his  second  missionary  1 
journey,  came  with  his  companions,  Silas  and 
Timothy,  to  Thessalonica,  he  labored  for 
three  weeks  among  the  Jews,  who  were  very 
numerous  in  that  city,  reasoning  with  them 
out  of  the  Scriptures,  opening  and  alleging 
that  it  behooved  the  Christ  to  suffer  and  to 
rise  again  from  the  dead,  and  that  Jesus  was 
indeed  the  Christ.  The  result  was  that 
some  Jews  were  persuaded,  and  also  of  the 
devout  Greeks  a  great  multitude  and  of  the 
chief  women  not  a  few.  But  the  unbeliev- 
ing Jews,  moved  with  jealousy,  took  unto 
them  certain  vile  fellows  of  the  rabble,  and, 
gathering  a  crowd,  set  the  city  in  an  uproar ;  I 
and  assaulting  the  house  of  Jason,  sought  to 
bring  forth  the  missionaries  to  the  people. 
But  when  they  found  them  not,  they  dragged 
Jason  and  certain  other  brethren  before  the 
rulers  of  the  city,  crying,  "  These  that  have 
turned  the  world  upside  down  are  come 
hither  also  "  (Acts  xvii.  1-9). 

191 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

"  These  that  have  turned  the  world  up- 
side down  " — it  was  the  cry  of  a  mob,  of 
which  it  could  no  doubt  have  been  said,  as 
afterward  of  a  similar  mob  in  Ephesus,  that 
"  the  more  part  kuew  not  wherefore  they 
were  come  together."  Nor  was  it  the  spon- 
taneous cry  even  of  such  a  mob.  It  had 
been  put  into  their  mouths  by  the  leaders  of 
the  Jewish  community,  even  as  the  fierce 
demand,  "  Crucify  Him  !  "  had  been  put  by 
the  chief  priests  on  the  tongues  of  the 
multitude  at  Jerusalem.  It  was  not,  there- 
fore, the  language  of  calm  consideration;  it 
was  that  of  jealous  hate,  of  fear,  of  frenzy, 
and  it  bears  the  marks  of  that  distortion  and 
exaggeration  with  which  these  passions  ever 
make  their  victims  speak.  And  yet  con- 
cealed beneath  distortion  and  exaggeration 
there  lay  a  kernel  of  truth.  At  least  the 
charge  thus  made  against  the  missionaries 
may  assure  us  that  Christianity  was  not  first 
heard  of  in  Thessalonica  on  the  first  of  those 
three  Sabbath  days  when  Paul  stood  up  in 
the  synagogue  to  prove  from  the  Scriptures 
that  Jesus  was  the  Christ.  The  news  of  the 
successes  won  by  this  new  teaching  in  other 
cities  had  already  reached  the  ears  of  the 

192 


The  Results  of  Apostolic  Missions 

Jewish  leaders  in  Thessalonica ;  and  what 
they  had  heard  was  sufficient  to  give  at  least 
a  color  of  truth  to  the  cry  which  they  taught 
the  loafers  of  the  market  place  to  utter, 
"  These  that  have  turned  the  world  upside 
down  have  come  hither  also." 

Christianity  was  indeed  destined  to  turn 
the  world — the  otxoupivT),  the  Roman  world — 
upside   down.     In   three    centuries,  it   may 
fairly  be   said,  it   had  justified   the  charge, 
though   not  just   in   the   way   which  those 
meant  it  who  first  gave  voice  to  it.     And  it 
is  our  first  business  in  this  chapter  to  inquire 
to  how  great  an  extent  this  mighty  change 
was     accomplished     in    the    apostolic    age. 
What  were  the  results  of  apostolic  missions  ? 
Or  perhaps  it  would  be  better  to  ask,  What 
were  the  apostolic  results  of  missions  ?     For 
it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  we  are  to  con- 
fine our  view,  in  the  first  instance,  to  the 
apostolic  age,  that  is,  to  the  period  up  to  the 
death  of  the  apostle  John.     It  is  true  there 
has  been  wide  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the 
date  of  that  event ;  but  we  cannot  be  far 
wrong  if  we  consider  that  the  apostolic  age 
came  to  an  end  with  the  first  century.    This 
limitation   of  time   is  important,   for  it  has 

193 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

sometimes  happened  that  results  that  were 
not  accomplished  until  the  age  of  Con- 
stantine  have  been  spoken  of  as  though  they 
had  already  been  attained  within  the  lifetime 
of  the  apostles. 

The  first  particular  in  which  we  may  seek 
to  appraise  apostolic  results  of  missionary 
effort  is  with  regard  to  that  which  some,  as  we 
have  seen,  regard  as  the  end  of  missions,  but 
which  we  believe  to  be  only  the  beginning 
— the  diffusion  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
gospel.  How  widely,  we  may  ask,  was  re- 
pentance and  remission  of  sins  preached  in 
Jesus'  name  in  the  first  century  ?  The  first  . 
factor  of  our  answer  to  this  query  we  may 
well  find  in  the  catalogue,  given  in  the 
second  chapter  of  the  Acts,  of  the  regions 
from  which  the  foreign  Jews  who  witnessed 
the  scenes  of  Pentecost  had  come.  In  the 
crowd  who  listened  to  Peter  on  that  occasion 
were  Parthian s,  Medes,  and  Elamites — that 
is,  natives  of  the  countries  lying  between 
the  Caspian  Sea  and  the  Persian  Gulf,  be- 
yond the  western  boundary  of  the  Roman 
empire ;  dwellers  in  Mesopotamia,  the  region 
of  which  Babylon  was  the  centre  ;  inhabit- 
ants of  Cappadocia,  Pontus,  Asia,  Phrygia, 

194 


The  Results  of  Apostolic  Missions 

Pamphylia— that  is,  of  all  the  provinces  of 
Asia  Minor ;  men  of  Egypt,  and  of  the  parts 
of  Libya  about  Cyrene — of  the  eastern  and 
western  districts  of  the  Mediterranean  coast 
of  Africa  under  Roman  rule ;  strangers  from 
Rome,  others  from  the  important  island  of 
Crete,  and  still  others  from  that  wide  region, 
extending    from    Damascus   to   the   Indian 
Ocean,   which  bore   the    name    of   Arabia. 
The   impression   given   by  the   narrative   is 
that  not  only  were  Jews  and  proselytes  from 
all  these  widely  separated  regions  present  in 
the   audience  that  listened  to  the  apostles, 
but   also   that   representatives   from   all   or 
nearly  all  of  them  were  included  in  the  three 
thousand  who  were  led  by  what  they  heard 
to  open  confession  of  Jesus  as  the  Christ. 
If  this  be  the  case,  we  have  as  the  result  of 
the  very  first  preaching  of  the  gospel  by  the 
apostles  a  diffusion  of  at  least  some  knowl- 
edge of  it  over  a  wide  portion  of  the  empire. 
Nor  can  this  be  said  to  be  mere  conjecture. 
We  know  that  the  church,  at  a  very  early 
stage   of    its   history,    did   include   men   of 
Cyprus,  as  Barnabas  (Acts  iv.  36)  ;  men  of 
Antioch,    as   Nicholas,    one  of  the    original 
company  of   deacons    (vi.   5) ;   men  of  Da- 

195 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

mascus,  as  Ananias  and  the  others  whom 
Saul  of  Tarsus  was  intending  to  carry  away 
bound  to  Jerusalem  (ix.  10) ;  and  men  of 
Cyrene,  as  those  who,  with  others  from 
Cyprus,  broke  over  the  bounds  of  Jewish 
exclusiveness  and  preached  to  the  Greeks  of 
Antioch  (xi.  20).  When  Paul  was  in 
Corinth  there  had  been  for  many  years 
Christians  in  Rome  (Rom.  i.  9-13,  xv.  23). 
The  epistle  to  Titus  seems  to  suggest  that 
there  were  disciples  in  Crete  before  Paul  and 
Titus  visited  that  island  (Tit.  i.  5).  These 
facts  make  it  probable  that  what  is  written 
(Acts  viii.  26ff.)  of  the  eunuch  of  Ethiopia, 
— that,  having  received  the  gospel  while  on 
a  visit  to  Palestine,  he  returned  to  his  own 
country,  thus  diffusing  the  knowledge  of  it, 
— was  only  a  single  illustration  of  what  took 
place  on  a  much  larger  scale. 

But  if  it  be  objected  that  this  spread  of 
the  glad  tidings  was  the  result  of  God's  prov- 
idence rather  than  of  deliberate  missionary 
effort,  we  may  remind  ourselves  how  wide 
was  the  region  over  which  we  know  the  gos- 
pel to  have  been  proclaimed  of  set  purpose. 
Samaria,  both  the  city  and  many  villages  of 
the  district  (Acts  viii.  14,  25);  Azotus  and 

IDG 


The  Results  of  Apostolic  Missions 

all  the  cities  north  of  it  as  far  as  Csesarea 
(viii.   40),    including   among  others  Lydda, 
Sharon  and  Joppa  (ix.  35,  42);    Phoenicia, 
Cyprus,  and  Antioch  (xi.  19);  Damascus  (ix. 
20) — all   these  cities  and  regions  had    cer- 
tainly been  the  scenes  of  missionary  endeavor 
before  the  Holy  Ghost  said  to  the  prophets 
and  teachers  at  Antioch,  "  Separate  me  Bar- 
nabas and  Saul  to  the  work  whereunto  I  have 
called  them."     On  his  first  tour  Paul  went 
through  the  whole  island  of  Cyprus  from 
Salamis  to  Paphos  (xiii.  5,  6).     Crossing  to 
the  mainland,  he  preached  also  in  Perga,  in 
Pamphylia,  and  in  Antioch  of  Pisidia,  where 
he  remained  three  weeks,  and  where  at  last 
"almost   the   whole   city   was   gathered  to- 
gether   to    hear   the   word   of     God,"   and 
whence   "  the   word  of  the  Lord  was  spread 
abroad  throughout  all  the  region  "  (xiii.  44, 
49).     Then  we  find  him  in  Iconium,  then  in 
Lystra  and  Derbe  and  the  parts  of  Lycaonia 
in  the  neighborhood  of  these  cities  (xiv.  6). 
On  his  second  journey  he  went  again  over 
the  regions  visited  in  his  first  (xv.  36),  and  then 
crossed  into  Europe,  preaching  in  Philippi, 
where  he  founded  a  church  which  from  the 
first  day  entered  into  fellowship  with  him  in 

197 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

furtherance  of  the  gospel  (Phil.  i.  5) ;  in 
Thessalonica,  where  he  established  another 
church,  from  which  the  word  of  God  sounded 
forth  not  only  in  Macedonia  and  Achaia,  but 
in  every  place  (1  Thess.  i.  8);  in  Bercea;  in 
Corinth,  where  he  stayed  two  years  and 
achieved  notable  success;  and  in  Ephesus. 
On  his  third  journey  he  came  to  Ephesus, 
where  he  labored  for  three  years  with  the 
result  that  "  all  that  dwelt  in  Asia  heard  the 
word  of  the  Lord,  both  Jews  and  Greeks  " 
(Acts  xix.  10).  Then  he  went  a  second  time 
through  Macedonia  to  Greece,  where  he  spent 
three  months,  returned  through  Macedonia, 
and  went  by  Troas  and  Miletus  to  Jerusalem 
(xx.  1-16).  Thus  he  could  say  (Rom.  xv. 
19)  that  "  from  Jerusalem  round  about  unto 
Illyricum — on  the  eastern  shore  of  the 
Adriatic — he  had  fully  preached  the  gospel 
of  God."  Besides,  we  know  that  he  was  at 
some  time  in  Crete  with  Titus  (Tit.  i.  5), 
and  that  for  two  years  he  preached  to  all 
that  came  to  him  in  his  own  hired  house  at 
Rome  (Acts  xxviii.  30,  31).  It  is  entirely 
possible,  also,  that  between  his  first  and 
second  imprisonments,  if  we  suppose  that 
there  were   two   imprisonments,  he  carried 

198 


The  Results  of  Apostolic  Missions 

out  his  purpose  to  visit  Spain  (Rom.  xv.  24, 
28).  So  much  Paul  seems  to  have  accom- 
plished for  the  spread  of  the  knowledge  of 
the  gospel  in  his  own  person  and  by  word  of 
mouth,  to  say  nothing  of  what  he  brought 
about  by  letters  or  through  the  agency  of  his 
lieutenants.  Our  information  as  to  the  mis- 
sionary travels  of  the  other  apostles  is  not  so 
full.  We  know  that  Peter  was  at  some  time 
in  Babylon  (1  Pet.  v.  13),  and  though  we  al- 
low no  weight  to  the  tradition  which  sends 
Thomas  to  India,  Bartholomew  to  Parthia, 
Andrew  to  Russia,  Philip  to  Scythia,  and 
Matthew  to  Ethiopia,  we  may  be  sure  that 
these  were  busy  somewhere  in  preaching  the 
glad  tidings.  These  are  the  facts  by  which 
we  must  interpret  the  strong  expression  of 
Paul  in  his  letters  to  the  Colossians  (i.  23), 
"  Be  not  moved  away  from  the  hope  of  the 
gospel,  which  ye  heard,  which  was  preached 
in  all  creation  under  heaven. " 

And  what  were  the  results  of  this  wide- 
spread evangelism  ?  How  many  converts 
were  made  ?  How  many  churches  were 
founded?  At  least  partial  answers  can  be 
given  to  these  questions.  At  the  close  of 
the    day   of    Pentecost   three  thousand  be- 

199 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

lieved  (Acts  ii.  41).  This  number  increased 
daily  (ii.  47,)  and  after  Peter  had  healed 
the  lame  man  the  number  of  the  men  alone 
grew  to  be  five  thousand  (iv.  4).  In  conse- 
quence of  the  judgment  upon  Ananias  and 
Sapphira,  believers,  we  are  told,  "were  the 
more  added  to  the  Lord,  multitudes  both  of 
men  and  women "  (v.  14).  After  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  deacons,  "  the  word  of  the 
Lord  increased  and  the  number  of  the  dis- 
ciples multiplied  in  Jerusalem  exceedingly  " 
(vi.  7).  We  are  not  surprised,  therefore, 
that  on  the  occasion  of  Paul's  last  visit  to 
Jerusalem,  James  and  the  elders  should  say 
to  him,  "  Thou  seest,  brother,  how  many 
myriads  there  are  among  the  Jews  which 
have  believed  "  (xxi.  20).  And  as  at  Jeru- 
salem, so  elsewhere  ;  as  among  the  Jews,  so 
also  among  the  Gentiles.  The  account  given 
of  Philip's  labors  in  Samaria  is  that  multi- 
tudes both  of  men  and  women  believed  and 
were  baptized  (viii.  6,  12).  As  the  result  of 
his  later  efforts  in  the  cities  of  the  Judaean 
coast-plain,  and  of  the  teaching  and  miracles 
of  Peter  who  followed  him,  all  that  dwelt  in 
the  city  of  Lydda  and  the  district  of  Sharon 
and  many  inhabitants  of  Joppa  are  said  to 

200 


The  Results  of  Apostolic  Missions 

have  believed  and  turned  to  the  Lord  (ix. 
35,  42).  The  original  converts  at  Antioch 
are  spoken  of  as  a  great  number  (xi.  21). 
The  visit  of  Barnabas  resulted  in  large  addi- 
tions to  the  church,  and  the  joint  labors  of 
Barnabas  and  Saul  in  still  further  expansion, 
until  not  only  these  two,  but  Symeon, 
Lucius,  and  Manaen  found  employment  in 
the  Lord's  work  (xi.  24,  26,  xiii.  1).  In 
Pisidian  Antioch  "  many  of  the  Jews  and  of 
the  devout  proselytes  followed  Paul  and 
Barnabas  "  (xiii.  43) ;  in  Iconium  "  a  great 
multitude  both  of  Jews  and  of  Greeks  be- 
lieved "  (xiv.  1) ;  in  Derbe  the  apostles 
"made  many  disciples "  (xiv.  21).  The 
effect  of  the  labors  of  Paul  and  Silas  in 
Thessalonica  was,  as  already  noted,  that 
"  some  Jews  were  persuaded,  and  of  the  de- 
vout Greeks  a  great  multitude,  and  of  the 
chief  women  not  a  few "  (xvii.  4),  and 
almost  the  same  statement  is  made  (xvii.  12) 
with  regard  to  their  success  in  Beroea.  We 
are  told  that  many  of  the  people  of  Corinth, 
when  they  heard  Paul's  preaching,  believed 
and  were  baptized  (xviii.  8 );  and  in  his 
second  epistle  to  the  Corinthians  (i.  1)  the 
apostle  greets  not  only  the  church  in  Cor- 

201 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

inth,  but  also  "  all  the  saints  that  are  in  the 
whole  of  Achaia."  In  Ephesus  "  many  came 
and  confessed,  and  shewed  their  deeds " 
(Acts  xix.  18).  The  salutations  with  which 
Paul  closes  his  letter  to  the  Romans  (chap, 
xvi.)  are  addressed  not  only  to  individual 
disciples,  as  Epsenetns,  Andronicus,  and 
Junia,  but  to  "  Aquila  and  Priscilla  and  the 
church  that  is  in  their  house,"  to  "Asyn- 
critus,  Phegon,  Hermes,  Patrobas,  and  the 
brethren  that  are  with  them,"  to  "Philologus 
and  Julia,  Nereus  and  his  sister,  and  Olym- 
pas  and  all  the  saints  that  are  with  them." 

And  as  there  were  many  disciples,  so  there 
were  many  churches.  Attention  has  more 
than  once  in  these  pages  been  called  to  the 
fact  that  it  was  Paul's  constant  practice  to 
organize  his  converts  into  churches,  with  eld- 
ers taken  from  their  own  number.  Even  on 
his  first  tour  he  left  such  churches  behind 
him.  And  the  eleven  pursued  the  same  pol- 
icy. There  was  not  only  a  church  in  Jeru- 
salem (Acts  viii.  1),  but  churches  throughout 
all  Judaea  and  Galilee  and  Samaria  (ix.  31). 
There  were  churches  in  Syria  and  Cilicia  (xv. 
41),  in  Lycaonia  (xvi.  5),  in  Phrygia  and 
Galatia  (xviii.  23,  1  Cor.  xvi.  1).     Beside  the 

202 


The  Results  of  Apostolic  Missions 

seven  churches  in  Asia  to  whom  John  con- 
veys messages  in  the  Apocalypse,  there  were 
churches  in  Troas  (Acts  xx.  7),  in  Colossse 
(Col.  i.  1),  and  probably  in  Hierapolis  (Col. 
iv.  13).     There  was  not  only  a  church  in 
\  Philippi   (Phil.  i.   1),  and  another  in  Thes- 
salonica    (1   Thess.   i.   1),   but   there   were 
churches  in  Macedonia  (2  Cor.  viii.  1).    And 
so  in  Achaia  ;  there  were  churches  in  Corinth 
(1  Cor.  i.  2)  and  in  Cenchrea  (Rom.  xvi.  1), 
but  Paul  in  the  epistle  to  the  Romans,  writ- 
ten from  Corinth,  sends  greetings  from  "  all 
the   churches   of   Christ"   (Rom.   xvi.   16). 
The  epistle  to  Titus  (i.  5)  makes  it  plain 
that  there  were   a   number   of  churches  in 
Crete.     Peter    in   his   first   epistle    (v.    13) 
sends  greeting  from  the  church  in  Babylon, 
and   while   he   inscribes   his   letter   only  to 
"the   elect  who   are  sojourners  of  the  Dis- 
persion in  Pontus,  Galatia,  Cappadocia,  Asia 
and  Bithynia  "  (i.  1),  yet  the  tenor  of  his  in- 
structions to  his  fellow-elders  (v.  Iff.)  shows 
that  the   Jewish   Christians  in  these  regions 
were   organized   into   churches.     The   same 
remark  applies  to  the  epistle  of  James  (cf.  i. 
1,  v.  14). 
All  these  churches  had  been  founded  be- 

203 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

fore  the  death  of  Paul.  If  that  occurred  in 
A.  D.  68,  we  may  easily  concur  in  the  opin- 
ion expressed  by  the  writer  of  the  article  on 
11  The  Historical  Geography  of  Missions  "  in 
the  Cyclopedia  of  Missions.  "  Of  this  we 
can  be  sure,"  he  says,  "  Christianity  found  a 
lodgment  in  the  first  century  from  Spain  to 
Babylon  (3,000  miles)  and  from  Alexandria 
to  Rome.  It  had  taken  the  whole  Mediter- 
ranean as  its  field  of  work.  In  30  A.  D. 
there  were  500  Christians ;  in  100  A.  D. 
there  were  probably  500,000.  A  map  of  the 
Christian  world  at  this  date  containing  only 
certainties  would  not  give  a  true  impression 
of  the  geographical  extent  of  Christianity. 
From  the  unexampled  spread  a  little  later  we 
must  allow  a  large  growth  in  these  early 
times  before  the  great  persecutions.  The 
map  should  show  the  routes  Paul  took  on 
his  missionary  journeys  and  on  his  way  to 
Rome.  The  cities  of  iElia  Capitolina  (Jeru- 
salem after  70  A.  D.),  Samaria,  Joppa, 
Cassarea,  Ptolemais  (Acre),  Tyre,  Sidon, 
Damascus,  Salamis,  Antioch,  Tarsus,  Derbe, 
Lystra,  Iconium,  Antiochia,  Hierapolis,  Co- 
lossse,  Philadelphia,  Sardis,  Thyatira,  Per- 
gamum,  Ephesus,  Smyrna,  Philippi,  Thessalo- 

204 


The  Results  of  Apostolic  Missions 

nica,  Beroea,  Corinth,  Cenchrea,  and  Rome 
should  be  plainly  marked.  The  following 
cities  and  countries  should  be  put  down  as 
probable :  Babylon,  Edessa,  Arabia  Petrsea, 
Alexandria,  Cyrene,  Ancyra  (in  Galatia), 
Perga,  Troas,  Athens,  Rhodes,  Crete,  Mileta, 
Puteoli,  Carthage,  and  Southern  Spain.  It 
is  possible  that  Dalmatia,  Britain,  and  the 
Rhone  valley  should  be  included." 

But  let  us  not  misunderstand  what  is 
meant.  It  is  not  meant  that  these  cities  and 
countries  were  by  100  A.  D.  wholly  Chris- 
tian, but  only  that  Christianity  had  gained  a 
foothold,  churches  had  been  founded  in 
them.  A  student  in  one  of  our  theological 
seminaries  recently  published  a  missionary 
map  of  the  world  in  which  the  regions  domi- 
nated by  Protestant  Christianity  are  indi- 
cated in  white,  while  the  unevangelized 
portions  of  the  world  are  black.  Should  we 
prepare  in  the  same  manner  a  map  of  the 
Roman  empire  at  the  close  of  the  first  cen- 
tury, there  would  not  be  a  single  patch  of 
white,  but  only  a  few  points  of  light  scattered 
over  the  black  field  as  the  stars  are  scattered 
on  the  face  of  the  sky. 

But   our   estimate  of  the  results   of  first 

205 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

century  missions  must  not  be  merely  quanti- 
tative. Souls  and  churches  weigh  as  well  as 
count ;  and  we  have  need  to  ask  not  only, 
How  many  ?  but  also,  Of  what  sort  ?  As  to 
outward  condition,  the  converts  of  apostolic 
missions  were  mostly  of  the  lower  and 
middle  classes  in  society.  Though  here  and 
there  in  the  church  were  to  be  found  those 
who  had  rank  or  official  station,  like  Manaen, 
foster-brother  of  Herod  the  tetrarch,  at  An- 
tioch  (Acts  xiii.  1),  Erastus,  the  treasurer  of 
Corinth  (Rom.  xvi.  23),  Sergius  Paulus,  pro- 
consul of  Cyprus  (Acts  xiii.  12),  and  Pudens 
and  Claudia  at  Rome  (2  Tim.  iv.  21),  the 
former  perhaps  the  son  of  a  senator,  the 
latter  the  daughter  of  a  British  king,  (Cf. 
Conybeare  and  Howson.  Life  and  Epistles 
of  St.  Paul  h\,  pp.  484,  485),  yet  for  the  most 
part  it  was  the  poor  of  this  world  who  were 
found  to  be  chosen  of  God  to  be  rich  in  faith 
and  heirs  of  His  promised  kingdom.  Paul 
says  (2  Cor.  viii.  2)  that  the  Christians  of 
Macedonia  gave  out  of  deep  poverty,  and  the 
very  occasion  of  their  liberality  was  the  ne- 
cessity of  their  yet  poorer  brethren  in  Judaea. 
So  also  in  Corinth.  Not  many  wise  or  mighty 
or  noble  were  called,  but  the  foolish,  the 

206 


The  Results  of  Apostolic  Missions 

weak,  the  base,  and  the  despised  did  God 
choose  for  the  purposes  of  His  grace  (1  Cor. 
i.  26,  27). 

But  it  is  the  inward  rather  than  the  out- 
ward condition  of  the  apostolic  churches  that 
most  concerns.  And  as  to  this  point  we  have 
much  fuller  information  than  as  to  their 
number  or  size.  The  first  chapters  of  the 
Acts  present  us  with  a  fairly  detailed  picture 
of  the  church  in  Jerusalem  ;  the  epistles  of 
Paul  draw  with  a  loving  but  impartial  hand 
the  portraits  of  several  of  the  churches 
which  he  founded.  The  impression  we  get 
from  these  sources  of  these  churches,  the 
first  fruits  of  apostolic  missions,  is,  in  many 
respects  a  pleasing  one.  The  spirit  of  unity 
and  mutual  love  that  prevailed  among  the 
members  of  the  mother  church  in  Jerusa- 
lem, and  that  expressed  itself  in  the  volun- 
tary surrender  of  private  property  for  the 
relief  of  those  that  were  in  need  ;  the  joyous- 
ness  that  uttered  itself  in  daily  praises  ;  the 
ready  submission  to  the  teaching  and  guid- 
ance of  the  apostles  (Acts  ii.  42-47)  ;  the 
simple  faith  in  Christ  that  was  content  to 
answer  the  persecuting  rage  of  the  Jewish 
authorities    with   humble   prayer   that   God 

207 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

would  fulfill  His  promises  and  honor  His  Son 
Jesus  (iv.  23-31) ;  the  aggressive  zeal  that 
led  to  the  daily  increase  of  their  number  and 
the  winning  of  a  great  company  even  of  the 
priests  to  the  obedience  of  faith  (vi.  7),  and 
made  the  outbreak  of  persecution,  not  a 
reason  for  keeping  silence,  but  an  occasion 
for  the  wider  diffusion  of  the  glad  tidings 
(viii.  4) ;  the  spiritual  power  that  showed 
itself,  not  only  in  the  apostles,  but  in  Stephen 
and  Philip  and  Barnabas  and  Judas  and 
Silas,  and  that  not  merely  in  the  possession 
of  miraculous  gifts,  but  in  deep  insight  into 
the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  and  power  to 
use  them  in  convincing  and  convicting  un- 
believers and  in  instructing  and  edifying  be- 
lievers— in  all  this  we  may  find  abundant 
evidence  that  the  Saviour  was  honoring  his 
promise  to  be  with  his  disciples  in  the  work 
he  had  laid  upon  them. 

Or  turn  from  Luke's  narrative  to  Paul's 
letters,  those  to  the  Corinthians,  for  example. 
Let  us  remember  what  the  Roman  world  was, 
morally  and  spiritually,  in  that  day,  and  that 
of  all  this  Corinth  was,  as  it  were,  a  perfect 
epitome.  Seat  of  government  of  the  im- 
portant province   of  Achaia;  made   by  her 

208 


The  Results  of  Apostolic  Missions 

very  situation  between  two  seas  a  great  com- 
mercial entrepot ;  patroness  of  the  Isthmian 
games,  which  once  in  three  years  drew  to  her 
a  vast  assemblage  from  every  part  of  the  em- 
pire ;  chief  centre  of  the  voluptuous  worship 
of  Yenus,  goddess  of  love  and  pleasure; 
rich,  powerful,  gay,  corrupt — Corinth  was 
the  Paris  of  the  Roman  world.  And  here 
Paul  had  gathered  a  church.  Its  members 
were  not  rich  or  educated  or  noble ;  and  not 
only  did  they  come  from  the  lower  ranks  of 
society,  but  from  the  deepest  depths  of 
heathen  corruption  had  some  of  them  been 
drawn.  Fornicators,  idolaters,  adulterers, 
effeminate  abusers  of  themselves  with  men, 
thieves,  coveters,  drunkards,  revilers,  extor- 
tioners— "  such,"  says  Paul,  "  were  some  of 
you  "  (1  Cor.  vi.  9-11).  But  now  they  were 
washed,  sanctified,  justified,  called  to  be 
saints.  Paul  could  give  thanks  for  the  grace 
of  God  that  had  been  given  them  in  Christ, 
for  their  rich  endowment  in  every  grace,  in 
utterance,  in  knowledge,  in  patient  waiting 
for  the  revelation  of  the  Lord  Jesus  (i.  4-7). 
He  could  praise  them  that  they  remembered 
him  in  all  things,  and  held  fast  the  tradi- 
tions, even  as  he  had  delivered  them  to  them 

209 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

(xi.  1).  He  rejoiced  in  the  variety  of  mirac- 
ulous gifts  which  they  possessed.  He  could 
boast  of  their  liberality  in  contributing  to 
the  relief  of  the  poor  Christians  of  Judaea 
(2  Cor.  ix.  2).  They  had  shown  their  love  to 
him  by  praying  for  him  continually  (2  Cor. 
i.  11).  But  the  picture  has  its  shadows. 
These  Corinthian  Christians  were,  after  all, 
more  carnal  than  spiritual,  mere  babes  in 
Christ  (1  Cor.  iii.  1).  The  church  had  been 
split  into  factions  (i.  10ff.).  It  had  listened 
to  false  teachers  (2  Cor.  xi.  Iff.).  Many  of 
its  members  were  like  Christian  when  he 
emerged  from  the  Slough  of  Despond;  the 
idolatries  and  immoralities  of  their  heathen 
life  still  clung  to  them  (1  Cor.  v.  1,  vi.  18,  x. 
14rT.).  Disorders  had  appeared  in  their  wor- 
ship. The  charismata  were  made  to  minister 
to  personal  vanity  instead  of  to  the  edifica- 
tion of  the  church  (chap,  xiv.);  the  Lord's 
Table  became  a  scene  of  gluttony  and  drunk- 
enness (xi.  21).  There  were  errors  in  doc- 
trine ;  some  even  denied  that  there  had  been 
or  could  be  any  resurrection  of  the  dead  (xv. 
12). 

And  what  was  true  of  Corinth  was  more 
or  less  true  of  all  the  churches  of  which  we 

210 


The  Results  of  Apostolic  Missions 

have  any  account  in  the  pages  of  the  New 
Testament.  Open  whichever  of  Paul's  let- 
ters one  may,  there  appears  substantially  the 
same  picture,  of  churches  made  up  for  the 
most  part  of  truly  converted  men  and  women, 
exhibiting  many  of  the  graces  of  the  Spirit, 
strong  in  faith,  abounding  in  love,  full  of 
earnestness  and  zeal,  and  yet  exposed  to 
grave  perils  through  tolerance  of  false  teach- 
ers and  acceptance  of  false  doctrines,  and 
still  more  through  conformity  to  the  evil 
world  by  which  they  were  environed.  Simi- 
lar deductions  must  be  made  from  the  ac- 
count of  the  state  of  the  Jewish  churches. 
The  epistle  to  the  Hebrews  shows  us  how 
Judaism,  with  its  ancient  traditions  and  splen- 
did ritual,  still  retained  its  attraction  for  the 
Jewish  Christians.  The  epistle  of  James 
rebukes  them  for  a  dead  orthodoxy,  unchris- 
tian regard  for  the  rich  and  neglect  of  the 
poor,  grievous  sins  of  the  tongue,  unseemly 
strife,  and  the  worldly  mind.  Peter,  too, 
while  he  praises  the  Jewish  Christians  of 
Asia  Minor  for  their  faith,  their  love  to  a 
Saviour  they  had  never  seen,  and  their  affec- 
tion for  each  other,  thinks  it  necessary  to 
warn  them  again  and  again  that  they  must 

211 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

not  fashion  themselves  according  to  their 
former  lusts  in  the  days  of  their  ignorance, 
but  that  the  time  past  of  their  lives  must 
suffice  them  to  have  wrought  the  desire  of 
the  Gentiles,  to  have  walked  in  lascivious- 
ness,  lusts,  wine-bibbings,  revelings,  carous- 
ings  and  abominable  idolatries  (1  Pet.  i.  14, 
ii.  1,  11,  iv.  3).  So  that  of  Jewish  and  Gen- 
tile converts  alike  we  may  say  with  Dr.  Rufus 
Anderson,  so  long  secretary  of  the  American 
Board,  "  While  the  primitive  converts  were 
remarkable  as  a  class  for  the  high  tone  of 
their  religious  feelings  and  the  simplicity  and 
strength  of  their  faith,  they  were  deficient  in 
a  clear,  practical  apprehension  of  the  ethical 
code  of  the  gospel"  [Foreign  Missions,  p.  59). 
But  we  should  fail  to  do  justice  to  the  re- 
sults of  apostolic  missions  if  we  did  not  re- 
gard the  fruit  borne  in  individual  Christians 
as  well  as  in  churches.  That  would  be  no 
just  estimate  of  the  results  attained  in  Jeru- 
salem which  should  take  no  account  of  Bar- 
nabas, that  good  man  and  full  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  of  faith,  who  sold  his  land  to  bring 
the  price  and  lay  it  at  the  apostles'  feet,  who 
was  large-minded  enough  to  believe  that  Saul 
of  Tarsus,  so  lately  a  persecutor,  was  now  a 

212 


The  Results  of  Apostolic  Missions 

disciple  (Acts  xi.  24,  iv.  36,  ix.  27) ;  and  of 
Stephen,  full  of  faith  and  power,  disputing 
in  the  synagogues  with  a  wisdom  and  dem- 
onstration of  the  Spirit  which  his  adversaries 
could  not  withstand,  burning  with  a  holy  zeal 
that  made  his  face  like  the  shining  face  of  an 
angel  but  was  yet  yoked  with  so  much  of 
His  Master's  temper  that  he  could  pray,  as 
he  fell  under  the  stones  of  the  mob,  "  Lord, 
lay  not  this  sin  to  their  charge ! "  (vi.  8,  vii. 
54fT.)  That  would  be  a  very  inadequate 
statement  of  Paul's  success  as  a  missionary 
that  should  have  nothing  to  say  of  Timothy, 
who  served  with  him  in  the  gospel  as  a  child 
serveth  a  father  (Phil.  ii.  22) ;  and  of  Epa- 
phras,  who  for  the  work  of  Christ  came  nigh 
unto  death,  hazarding  his  life  to  supply  the 
apostle's  need  (Phil.  ii.  30);  and  of  Titus, 
whose  earnest  care  for  the  welfare  of  the 
church  at  Corinth  Paul  declares  to  have  been 
equal  to  his  own  (2  Cor.  viii.  16);  and  of 
Aquila  and  Priscilla,  the  tutors  in  Christ  of 
eloquent  Apollos,  the  hosts  of  the  apostle  in 
Corinth,  who,  wherever  they  lived — in  Cor- 
inth, Ephesus,  Rome — had  a  church  in  their 
house,  who  made  not  only  Paul  but  all  the 
churches  of  the  Gentiles  their  debtors  by 

213 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

saving  his  life  at  the  peril  of  their  own  (Acts 
xviii.  3,  26  ;  1  Cor.  xvi.  9 ;  Rom.  xvi.  3-5). 

And  the  mention  of  Priscilla,  and  the  fact 
that  her  name  three  times  precedes  that  of 
her  husband,  as  it  follows  it  three  times,  may 
remind  us  of  some  new  forces  that  began  to 
stir  in  heathen  society  as  the  results  of  apos- 
tolic missions.  Among  these  was  a  new  esti- 
mate of  the  dignity  of  woman,  of  the  honor 
to  be  paid  her  as  joint  heir  with  her  husband 
of  the  grace  of  life ;  a  new  view  of  the 
sacredness  of  marriage ;  a  new  tenderness 
for  children ;  a  new  care  for  the  slave ;  a 
new  sense  of  the  nobility  of  labor.  These 
new  views,  feelings,  practices  appear  in  the 
pages  of  the  New  Testament  in  part  indeed 
only  as  injunctions  of  the  apostles  to  their 
converts,  but  in  part  also,  as  the  names  of 
Priscilla  and  Phoebe  and  Onesimus  will  sug- 
gest, as  results  already  beginning  to  be  at- 
tained within  the  limits  of  the  church. 
Their  first  effect  upon  the  heathen  world  was 
to  excite  wonder ;  but  in  the  end  they  were 
to  work  so  mightily  as  in  themselves  to  jus- 
tify the  charge  against  the  first  missionaries 
which  serves  in  some  sort  as  the  text  of  this 
chapter,  "  These  that  have  turned  the  world 
upside  down  have  come  hither  also." 

214 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  EESULTS   OF  MODEKN  MISSIONS 

When  we  undertake  to  make  compari- 
son between  the  results  of  apostolic  mis- 
sions, as  outlined  in  the  preceding  chapter, 
and  those  of  modern  missions,  our  first 
thought  is  that  such  comparison  is  barred, 
in  view  of  the  far  longer  time  through  which 
modern  missions  have  been  prosecuted.  It 
was  at  the  most  seventy-five  years  between 
Pentecost  and  the  death  of  the  Apostle  John: 
but  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  have  passed 
since  Eliot  began  to  preach  to  the  Indians 
about  Boston ;  it  will  soon  be  two  hundred 
years  since  Ziegenbalg  and  Plutschau  set  sail 
for  Tranquebar ;  it  is  a  hundred  years  and 
more  since  Carey  landed  in  Calcutta.  Two 
counter-suggestions,  however,  will  immedi- 
ately occur  to  us.  One  is  that,  as  already 
suggested,  results  that  can  be  measured 
quantitatively  are  neither  the  only  nor  the 
chief  things  to  be  considered.     If  it  can  be 

shown  that  modern  missions  have  been  effect- 

215 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

ing  the  same  kinds  of  results  as  those 
achieved  by  apostolic  missions,  it  will  be  a 
question  of  far  less  moment  whether  they 
have  effected  them  in  the  same  or  a  less  or  a 
greater  degree.  The  other  suggestion  is  that 
there  are  important  differences  in  the  condi- 
tions under  which  the  results  of  missions 
were  brought  about  in  apostolic  and  in  mod- 
ern times  respectively.  To  say  this  is  not  to 
contradict  what  was  said  in  an  earlier  chapter 
with  regard  to  the  substantial  similarity  of 
the  conditions  confronting  the  church  of  the 
first  century  and  that  of  our  own  time  in 
undertaking  the  work  of  missions.  These 
differences  are  not  such  as  affect  the  kind  of 
the  results  attained,  but  only  their  degree. 
For  one  thing,  therefore,  we  may  remember 
that,  in  an  important  sense,  the  Roman  world 
was  a  unity,  under  one  government,  using 
one  language,  dominated  by  one  spirit.  Such 
was  the  intercourse  between  the  various  por- 
tions of  the  empire,  and,  especially,  such  was 
the  relation  of  Jerusalem  to  the  communities 
of  Jews  to  be  found  in  every  considerable 
city,  that  a  new  religious  movement  intro- 
duced at  any  point,  but  most  of  all  at  the 
Jewish  capital,  would  find  its  way  with  the 

216 


The  Results  of  Modem  Missions 

greatest  facility  to  the  farthest  corners.  Of 
this  fact  the  catalogue  of  districts  repre- 
sented in  Peter's  audience  on  the  day  of  Pen- 
tecost is  a  sufficient  illustration.  The  world 
as  it  was  at  the  dawn  of  modern  missions 
had  no  such  unity.  So  far  as  any  effect  upon 
India  was  concerned,  Eliot  might  almost  as 
well  have  been  laboring  on  some  other 
planet ;  the  same  might  be  said  of  the  rela- 
tion of  the  work  of  Carey  and  his  associates 
to  the  evangelization  of  Africa.  Differences 
of  race,  language,  government,  customs,  as 
well  as  vast  distances,  stormy  oceans,  and 
mountain  walls  separated  the  great  sections 
of  heathenism  from  each  other ;  and  while 
some  of  these  barriers  have  since  been  re- 
moved, others,  as  for  example,  that  presented 
by  differences  of  language,  remain  to  this 
day.  Nor  must  we  forget  how  small  was  the 
Roman  empire  in  comparison  with  the  field 
of  modern  missions.  It  lay  in  a  circle  around 
the  Mediterranean,  which  furnished  an  easy 
highway  to  every  part  of  it.  Its  extreme 
length  from  east  to  west  was  three  thousand 
miles,  from  north  to  south  fifteen  hundred. 
Its  total  area  was  less  than  two  million 
square  miles.     Its  population  may  have  been 

217 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

a  hundred  millions.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
is  fifteen  hundred  miles  from  Peking  to  the 
southern  point  of  Hainan.  The  Chinese 
empire  alone  contains  five  million  square 
miles,  and  has  a  population  of  three  hundred 
millions.  It  is  further  from  the  vale  of 
Kashmir  to  Cape  Comorin  than  from  the 
cataracts  of  the  Nile  to  the  Danube.  Hin- 
dustan is  larger  by  a  third  than  the  Roman 
empire  at  its  largest,  and  has  a  population 
two  and  a  half  times  as  great.  If  we  take 
the  map  of  the  world  and  compare  Asia 
Minor  or  Achaia,  the  principal  scenes  of 
Paul's  missionary  labors,  with  either  of  these 
great  mission-lands,  not  to  say  with  Africa, 
we  find  them  to  be  in  comparison  about  as  a 
postage  stamp  is  to  the  envelope  on  which  it 
may  be  placed. 

It  may  be  said,  too,  that  the  disproportion 
between  primitive  and  modern  missions  with 
regard  to  the  time  in  which  their  results 
were  accomplished  is  apparent  rather  than 
real.7  inasmuch  as  present-day  results  have 
practically  all  been  realized  since  Carey. 
This  is  not  to  say  that  earlier  laborers  had 
no  success,  but  only  that  their  successes  were 
not  of  a  permanent  sort.     Nothing  now  re- 

218 


The  Results  of  Modern  Missions 

mains  of  what  was  won  by  Eliot  and 
Brainerd  among  the  Indians,  because  the 
Indians  themselves  were  long  since  swept 
away.  There  was  the  same  lack  of  perma- 
nence in  the  work  of  Ziegenbalg  and 
Schwartz  and  their  successors  in  Tran- 
quebar.  Dr.  Thompson,  in  his  lectures  on 
early  Protestant  missions,  tells  us  that  while 
in  a  hundred  years  there  were,  on  that  field, 
perhaps  fifty  thousand  baptisms,  yet  that  the 
delegation  sent  by  the  London  Missionary 
Society  in  1821-9  reported  that  neither  in 
Tanjore  nor  Tranquebar  was  any  vital  religion 
to  be  found  {Protestant  Missions,  p.  206). 
We  are  not  far  wrong,  therefore,  if  we  say 
that  whatever  results  modern  missions  pre- 
sent to-day  in  the  world-wide  field  have  been 
achieved  within  a  hundred  years.  What  has 
been  accomplished  in  China  has  been  accom- 
plished in  half  that  time.  Indeed  it  is  less 
than  forty  years  since  missionaries  were  per- 
mitted to  live  or  work  outside  the  five 
original  treaty  ports.  So  in  Japan ;  what 
has  been  achieved  is  the  fruit  of  but  a  single 
generation  of  missionary  effort. 

Bearing  these  limitations  in  mind,  let  us 
consider   what    have    been    the    results   of 

219 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

modern  missions,  first,  in  securing  the  diffu- 
sion of  the  Gospel.  With  how  much  less  of 
hyperbole  than  that  of  which  Paul  makes 
use  (Rom.  x.  18)  can  we  say  to-day  of  the  glad 
tidings  of  salvation  what  David  could  say 
only  of  the  proclamation  of  God's  glory  in 
the  heavens,  "  Their  line  is  gone  out  through 
all  the  earth,  and  their  words  to  the  end  of 
the  world  "  !  Thibet  is  the  one  land  of  the 
earth,  unless  we  add  some  of  the  interior  dis- 
tricts of  Africa,  that  has  not  been,  we  will 
not  say  entered,  but  permanently  occupied  in 
the  name  of  Christ ;  and  before  the  closed 
gates  of  Thibet,  even,  the  Moravian  mission- 
aries have  been  encamped  for  thirty  years, 
during  ten  of  which  they  have  been  able  to 
throw  the  Thibetan  New  Testament  over  the 
ramparts.  A  cordon  of  mission  stations  was 
long  since  drawn  around  the  Dark  Continent, 
and  from  the  south,  east,  north  and  west  the 
witnesses  of  Christ  have  been  pressing  in 
upon  its  mighty  heart.  When  the  "century 
of  missions "  closed  there  were  in  Africa 
1,350  stations  and  outstations,  places  in 
which  either  a  missionary  resided  or  the 
gospel  was  regularly  preached  under  mis- 
sionary supervision. 

220 


The  Results  of  Modern  Missions 

In  China,  Dr.  Lawrence  found  that  "for 
about  2,000  miles  along  the  coast,  from  the 
Chinese  wall  to  Hong  Kong,  runs  a  continu- 
ous line  of  mission  stations  and  outstations, 
and  from  Shanghai,  at  right  angles  to  this 
coast  line,  and  from  the  middle  of  it,  for  1,500 
miles  up  the  Yang-tze  river — the  Mississippi 
of  China — runs  another  line  with  very  few 
breaks.  From  these  two  base-lines  mission- 
ary laborers  move  ever  farther  onward  and 
inward,  into  Shansi  and  Shensi,  into  Honan 
and  Hupeh  and  Hunan  and  Szechuan  and 
the  other  provinces  "  (Modern  Missio?is  in  the 
East,  pp.  65,  66*).  Already  in  sixteen  out  of 
the  eighteen  provinces  of  the  empire,  and 
from  more  than  a  thousand  centres,  the 
sound  of  Gospel  falls  on  Chinese  ears. 

In  India  in  1891  there  were  4,200  stations 
and  outstations,  in  addition  to  which  fifteen 
out  of  forty  societies  at  work  in  that  land 
reported  2,500  preaching  places,  where  the 
gospel  was  occasionally,  though  not  regularly 
'  proclaimed.  There  were  in  all  heathen  lands 
in  the  same  year  12,000  stations  and  outsta- 
tions, and  the  careful  writer  of  the  article 
on  " Methods  of  Mission  Work"  in  the 
Cyclopedia  of  Missions  tells  us  that  the  gos- 

221 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

pel  was  regularly  preached  in  at  least  13,200 
places.  Add  to  these  facts  the  spread  of  the 
knowledge  of  Christian  truth  by  means  that 
cannot  be  tabulated,  by  the  informal  preach- 
ing that  is  everywhere  and  always  going  on, 
for  example,  and  by  the  printed  page,  and 
we  shall  get  some  faint  impression  of  the  ex- 
tent of  the  diffusion  of  the  gospel  through 
modern  missions. 

Or  we  may  gain  this  impression  in  another 
way  if  we  estimate  the  number  of  those  who 
are  engaged  in  making  the  gospel  known. 
In  a  former  chapter  it  was  shown  how  evan- 
gelism permeates  and  utilizes  every  other  de- 
partment of  missionary  activity.  No  apology 
need  be  made,  therefore,  for  including  in  the 
number  of  those  who  make  proclamation  of 
the  gospel  all  missionary  workers,  and  all 
native  assistants  except  teachers,  though 
many  of  these  last  also  might  rightly  be  ac- 
counted preachers  in  the  wide  sense  in  which 
we  use  that  term.  Estimating  in  this  way, 
we  find  that  the  heralding  of  the  glad  tidings 
is  one  chief  business  of  6,000  men  and  women 
in  Africa,  11,000  in  India,  3,000  in  China, 
1,000  in  Japan.  It  may  be  admitted,  indeed, 
that  this  showing  is  far  from  what  it  should 

223 


The  Results  of  Modern  Missions 

be  if  the  population  of  heathen  lands  is  to 
be  overtaken  with  the  gospel  in  this  genera- 
tion, or  even  in  several  generations,  but  it 
may  well  be  asked  whether  the  diffusion  of 
saving  truth  in  the  Roman  empire  in  the  first 
century  was  so  great  in  proportion  to  the 
population  as  that  which  has  thus  been 
brought  about,  in  some  instances  in  a  much 
briefer  period,  in  the  great  mission  lands  of 
to-day. 

Let  us  now  inquire  what  has  been  the  out- 
come of  modern  missions  in  converts  and 
churches.  The  most  striking  difference  be- 
tween the  apostolic  and  the  modern  mission- 
ary enterprises  in  this  regard  is  that  while  the 
preaching  of  the  apostles  was  at  once  effect- 
ive for  the  conversion  of  souls,  both  among 
Jews  and  among  Gentiles,  modern  mission- 
aries have  won  converts  usually  only  after 
long  periods  of  waiting.  Carey,  for  example, 
had  been  seven  years  in  India  before  he 
baptized  Krishna  Pal,  his  first  convert.  Jud- 
son  lacked  but  a  fortnight  of  six  years  of 
missionary  labor  when  he  welcomed  Moung 
Nau,  the  first  Burman  to  wear  the  yoke  of 
Christ.  Morrison  landed  in  Canton  in  Sep- 
tember, 1807  ;  it  was  in  1814  that  he  bap- 

223 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

tizecl  Tsai-A-Ko  at  the  little  spring  near  the 
city  of  Macao.  Samuel  Marsden  and  his  as- 
sociates labored  seventeen  years  in  New 
Zealand  before  they  made  a  convert.  The 
Telugu  mission  of  the  American  Baptists 
was  maintained  for  thirty  years  with  so  little 
success  that  the  Missionary  Union  again  and 
again  debated  the  propriety  of  abandoning 
it.  These  are  to  a  certain  extent  typical  in- 
stances of  the  long  patience  with  which  the 
modern  missionary  husbandman  has  had  to 
await  the  sprouting  of  the  seed.  This  fact 
is  to  some  minds  very  disheartening.  Some 
earnest  friends  of  missions  do  not  hesitate  to 
avow  the  conviction  that  there  must  be  some- 
thing radically  wrong  in  missionary  methods 
where  progress  in  conversions  is  so  slow.  If 
this  phenomenon  had  been  confined  to  a  few 
fields  we  might  be  tempted  to  concur  in  this 
opinion ;  but,  as  already  said,  it  has  been 
rather  the  rule  than  the  exception  in  modern 
missionary  experience.  No  doubt  mistakes 
of  method  have  been  made,  Marsden  in 
New  Zealand,  for  instance,  confessed  that  he 
had  at  first  shared  the  error  held  by  Hans 
Egede  when  he  went  to  Greenland,  that  civ- 
ilization must  precede  Christianization. 

224 


The  Results  of  Modern  Missions 

But  whatever  mistakes  may  have  been 
made  in  individual  instances,  the  true  expla- 
nation, we  feel  sure,  is  to  be  found  in  those  dif- 
ferences which  have  already  been  alluded  to 
between  the  Roman  empire  in  New  Testament 
times  and  the  great  heathen  lands  of  to-day. 
The  original  apostles  addressed  their  own 
countrymen,  speaking  the  same  tongue,  hold- 
ing the  same  traditions,  wearing  the  same 
garb,  presenting  the  same  type  of  culture 
with  themselves.  Paul,  while  he  was  a  Jew 
in  race  and  religious  training,  was  also  a  Ro- 
man citizen,  in  many  respects  indistinguish- 
able from  the  great  mass  of  the  men  among 
whom  he  labored,  in  Asia  Minor,  Macedonia, 
and  Achaia.  The  Greek  tongue  was  a 
vehicle  for  the  spoken  and  written  procla- 
mation of  the  truth  which  has  never  been 
surpassed  in  the  history  of  human  speech. 
Modern  missionaries,  on  the  other  hand, 
have  gone  to  nations  utterly  unlike  them- 
selves in  race,  customs,  culture,  religion. 
They  have  been  compelled  to  give  weary 
years  to  the  study  of  strange  tongues  and  to 
the  breaking  down  of  the  suspicions  with 
which  the  heathen  have  regarded  them. 
When  they  have  acquired  the  language  of 

225 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

the  people,  they  have  in  many  instances 
found  it  so  crude,  so  debased  in  its  forms  of 
thought,  that  only  with  the  greatest  pains, 
and  very  imperfectly  even  then,  could  the 
thoughts  of  God  be  expressed  in  it.  Often, 
too,  the  minds  of  the  people  have  been  im- 
bued with  bitter  prejudice  against  the  mis- 
sionaries by  the  crimes  of  dishonesty,  vio- 
lence, and  lust  that  have  been  committed  by 
men  nominally  representatives  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  Modern  missionaries  have  not 
had  either  the  gift  of  tongues  or  the  power 
of  miracle  to  attract  attention  and  attest  the 
truth  of  their  message.  We  may  remind 
ourselves,  too,  that  the  apostles  were  not 
everywhere  equally  successful.  Paul  had 
small  fruit  of  his  labor  among  the  Jews  of 
Pisidian  Antioch  or  among  the  Gentiles  of 
Athens.  And  what  is  more  than  all  in  this 
connection,  "  the  times  and  seasons  "  now  as 
of  old  are  kept  in  the  Father's  authority. 
The  same  sovereign  Lord  who  kept  the  hun- 
dred and  twenty  waiting  ten  days  before  he 
endued  them  with  power,  may  choose  to  keep 
His  servants  of  the  present  age  waiting  as 
many  years  and  then  at  last  to  send  the  Pen- 
tecost. 

226 


The  Results  of  Modern  Missions 

This  has  been,  in  fact,  the  history  of  many 
a  field.  Missionaries  have  believed  that  it 
would  be  so,  and  so  it  has  been.  When  Jud- 
son  had  been  three  years  in  Rangoon,  he  wrote 
to  Luther  Rice,  "  If  any  ask  what  success  I 
meet  with  among  the  natives,  tell  them  to 
look  at  Otaheite,  where  the  missionaries  la- 
bored for  twenty  years,  and,  not  meeting 
with  the  slightest  success,  began  to  be  neg- 
lected by  the  heathen  world,  and  the  very 
name  of  Otaheite  began  to  be  a  shame  to 
Christian  missions;  and  now  the  blessing 
begins  to  come.  Tell  them  to  look  at  Ben- 
gal, also,  where  Dr.  Thomas  had  been  labor- 
ing seventeen  years  (that  is,  from  1783  to 
1800)  before  the  first  convert,  Krishna,  was 
baptized.  When  a  few  converts  are  once 
made,  things  will  move  on ;  but  it  requires  a 
much  longer  time  than  I  have  been  here  to 
make  a  first  impression  on  a  heathen  people. 
If  they  ask  again,  What  prospect  of  ultimate 
success  is  there?  tell  them,  As  much  as  there 
is  an  almighty  and  faithful  God  who  will 
perform  His  promises,  and  no  more.  If  this 
does  not  satisfy  them,  beg  them  to  let  me 
stay  here  and  try  it,  and  to  let  you  come, 
and  to  give  us  our  bread ;  or  if  they  are  un- 

227 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

willing  to  risk  their  bread  on  such  a  forlorn 
hope  as  has  nothing  but  the  word  of  God  to 
sustain  it,  beg  of  them,  at  least,  not  to  pre- 
vent others  from  giving  us  bread ;  and,  if  we 
live  some  twenty  or  thirty  years,  they  may 
hear  from  us  again  "  {Life  of  Adoniram  Jud- 
son,  pp.  92,  93).  Such  was  the  voice  of  good 
cheer  that  came  like  the  voice  of  Daniel  from 
the  bottom  of  the  den  of  lions.  May  it  not 
rebuke  some  who  in  sunlight  and  safety  are 
half-heartedly  "  holding  the  ropes  "  ? 

And  how  was  Judson's  faith  justified? 
When  he  died,  says  his  biographer,  the  Bur- 
mese Christians  numbered  over  seven  thou- 
sand, besides  hundreds  who  had  died  rejoic- 
ing in  Jesus.  He  had  finished  the  transla- 
tion of  the  Bible.  There  were  sixty-three 
churches  established  among  the  Burmans 
and  Karens.  These  churches  were  under 
the  care  of  163  missionaries,  native  pastors, 
and  assistants.  The  foundations  of  Chris- 
tianity had  been  laid  deep  down  in  the  Bur- 
man  heart  where  they  could  never  be  washed 
away.  Judson  died  in  1850.  The  latest  re- 
port (1897)  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Union 
shows  in  Burmah  twenty-five  stations,  600 
outstations,  187  native  preachers,  500  other 

228 


The  Results  of  Modern  Missions 

native  laborers,  640  native  churches,  more 
than  two-thirds  of  them  self-supporting,  and 
36,054  church  members,  of  whom  2,469  had 
been  baptized  in  a  single  year,  and  who  out 
of  deep  poverty  were  giving  nearly  $50,000 
annually  to  the  cause  of  Christ.  What  em- 
phasis these  figures  give  to  the  language  of 
the  report  from  which  they  are  taken  :  "  We 
are  nearing  the  close  of  the  third  generation 
of  missionary  occupation  of  this  land.  The 
results  speak  for  themselves.  .  .  Christianity 
has  taken  root  here,  and  we  believe  that  there 
are  districts  where  it  would  continue  to  flour- 
ish and  expand  independent  of  foreign  direc- 
tion " ! 

And  as  Judson  pleaded  to  be  allowed  to 
remain  in  Burmah,  so  did  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Jewett  plead  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
"  Lone  Star "  mission  to  the  Telugus  of 
India.  This  mission  was  founded,  says  Dr. 
A.  T.  Pierson  (Divine  Enterprise  of  Missions, 
p.  302fY.),  in  1835.  Mr.  Jewett  joined  it  in 
1848.  In  1853  Dr.  Samuel  F.  Smith's  poem, 
"Shine  on,  lone  star,"  gave  it  its  name,  and 
secured  for  it  a  new  lease  of  life.  In  1865  it 
was  reinforced  by  Rev.  J.  E.  Clough.  In 
1867  two  converts  had  been  baptized.     But 

229 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

in  1868  the  two  had  become  three-score  and 
ten.  In  1870  the  church  had  709  members; 
in  1871,  1,200;  in  1872,  1,650;  in  1875, 
2,600;  in  1876,  4,000.  In  one  day  in  1877 — 
a  veritable  nineteenth-century  day  of  Pente- 
cost— 2,222  were  baptized;  in  three  weeks 
of  the  same  year,  5,400;  in  seven  weeks, 
8,600.  At  the  end  of  this  year  the  church 
numbered  12,000.  There  are  now  in  this 
field  about  55,000  adult  Christians,  organized 
into  108  churches,  nearly  a  third  of  which 
are  self-supporting,  and  ministered  to  by  267 
native  pastors  and  evangelists. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  mission  in  India 
having  Bareilly  as  its  centre  was  founded  in 
1856.  In  1864  Dr.  Butler  reported  that  161 
converts  had  been  gathered,  and  organized 
into  ten  churches,  with  four  native  preachers. 
In  1891,  Dr.  Scott  of  the  same  mission  wrote 
home,  "  We  are  baptizing,  old  and  young,  a 
thousand  a  month."  In  1893  there  were 
18,000  additions  to  the  church,  and  in  the 
five  years  then  closing,  45,000.  The  latest 
printed  report  from  this  field  (that  for  1896) 
shows,  in  the  two  conferences  into  which  it 
is  now  divided,  a  total  adult  membership  of 
66,500.     The   baptisms   for   the   year  were 

230 


The  Results  of  Modern  Missions 

more  than  15,000,  of  whom  nearly  10,000 
were  adults.  The  children  gathered  in  sab- 
bath-schools numbered  65,000,  and  the  con- 
tributions of  the  Christians  to  religious  pur- 
poses, in  a  year  of  great  scarcity  and  im- 
pending famine,  amounted  to  54,373  rupees 
(115,000).  And  to  say  in  a  word  what  can 
be  put  in  the  form  of  statistics,  there  were  in 
all  heathendom  when  the  century  of  missions 
began  less  than  200  missionaries  and  50,000 
converts ;  when  it  closed,  there  were  6,000 
missionaries,  30,000  native  evangelists,  one- 
sixth  of  whom  were  ordained,  5,700  churches, 
and  750,000  living  church-members,  forming 
the  nucleus  of  a  Christian  community  of  not 
less  than  3,000,000. 

Let  us  turn,  however,  to  results  that  can- 
not be  expressed  in  figures.  Acknowledge 
as  we  must,  that  the  converts  and  churches 
of  to-day  are  not  perfect  any  more  than  were 
those  of  New  Testament  times,  they  yet  bear 
favorable  comparison  with  them.  Liable,  as 
were  their  prototypes  in  Corinth  and  Ephesus, 
to  be  drawn  into  sinful  contact  with  the  mire 
of  the  pit  from  which  they  have  been  digged, 
paining  the  hearts  and  disappointing  the 
hopes  of  their  fathers  in  Christ  by  relapses 

231 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

into  their  former  lusts  in  the  days  of  their 
ignorance,  how  like  they  are  to  those  who 
come  before  us  in  the  pages  of  the  Acts  and 
the  Epistles  as  the  God-given  seals  of  the 
ministry  of  the  apostles !  What  warm  love 
do  they  show  to  those  who  have  begotten 
them  in  Christ  Jesus  through  the  gospel ! 
How  many  have  risked  their  lives  for  the 
missionary,  as  Mebalwe  did  his  to  pluck 
Livingstone  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  lion  ! 
How  many  a  shore  has  witnessed  the  tears 
and  heard  the  sobs  of  those  who  bade  fare- 
well to  beloved  fathers  in  Christ,  tears  not 
less  sincere  than  those  that  fell  upon  the 
beach  of  Miletus !  How  many  a  modern 
Lydia  has  shown  her  gratitude  to  those  who 
have  taught  her  the  way  of  salvation  by  con- 
straining them  to  make  their  home  under 
her  roof !  How  many  a  latter-day  Paul  has 
had  his  band  of  loving  followers,  who  have 
ministered  to  his  comfort,  as  Luke  and  Titus 
and  Timothy  and  Priscilla  did  to  that  of  the 
apostle  to  the  Gentiles !  How  many  a  self- 
denying  eloquent  minister  of  Christ  has  come 
forward  to  be  to  the  missionary  a  fellow-la- 
borer in  the  gospel,  as  Tschoop  was  to  Zeis- 
berger,  as  Prosad  was  to  Carey,  as  Kothabyu 

232 


The  Results  of  Modern  Missions 

was  to  Juclson,  as  Sanquala  was  to  Board- 
man,  and  Gopee  Nath  Nundi  to  Duff  and 
his  successor ! 

Nor  should  we  forget  how,  out  of  the 
abundance  of  their  joy  and  their  deep  pov- 
erty, these  native  Christians  have  abounded 
in  the  riches  of  their  liberality;  how  they 
have  not  shrunk  back  from  martyrdom,  but 
in  Madagascar,  in  Laos  land,  in  Uganda,  in 
blood-stained  Armenia,  have  faced  the  dun- 
geon, the  sword,  the  spear,  the  cord,  the 
stake,  with  prayers  and  praises  on  their  lips, 
as  Stephen  kneeled  in  sight  of  Saul  of  Tarsus, 
as  thousands  in  early  days  braved  the  lions ; 
how  to  them,  to  their  changed  characters, 
their  pure  lives,  their  simple  testimony,  their 
missionary  zeal,  is  due,  as  missionaries  de- 
light to  testify,  the  largest  part  of  what  has 
been  won  in  heathen  lands ;  how  long  ago  in 
the  Pacific  islands,  and  more  recently  in  Ja- 
pan and  China,  they  have  begun  to  see  be- 
yond the  limits  of  their  own  land  and  race 
and  tongue,  and  to  feel  the  obligation  to  take 
up  and  carry  forward  to  other  nations  the 
banner  of  the  cross ;  how  more  and  more 
they  are  proving  themselves  worthy  of  the 
trust  that  missionaries  are  more  and  more 

233   • 


Apostolic  and  Modern  Missions 

learning  to  repose  in  them,  and  showing  that 
the  grace  of  God  in  them  is  a  living  power 
that  will  grapple  and  solve  the  problems  of 
individual  and  corporate  Christian  life. 
These  are  things  which  can  only  be  hinted 
at  here,  but  which  fill  those  who  mark  them 
with  holy  joy,  for  in  them  lies  the  proof  now 
and  for  us,  no  less  than  when  Pentecost  was 
still  in  the  air  and  Peter  and  Paul  led  the 
missionary  church,  that  Christ  is  with  His 
people. 

Nor  is  there  need  to  speak  at  length  of  in- 
direct results,  of  a  new  life  beginning  to 
throb  under  ribs  of  death,  of  horrid  customs 
abandoned,  of  demoniac  nations  made  to  sit 
clothed  and  in  their  right  mind,  of  enormi- 
ties of  sin  driven  to  hide  themselves  under 
cover  of  darkness,  of  caste  shattered,  of 
woman  emancipated.  The  story  of  all  this 
is  old,  and  it  has  just  been  told  anew  in  full- 
est detail  in  Dr.  James  S.  Dennis'  book, 
Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress.  Nor 
may  we  delay  to  tell  what  triumphs  of  divine 
grace — of  wisdom,  love,  zeal,  self-denial,  hu- 
mility, patience,  faith,  courage — have  been 
wrought  in  missionary  character,  giving  us 
out  of  every  church  and  every  Christian  land 

234 


The  Results  of  Modern  Missions 

a  noble  company  who,  like  the  elder  Saul, 
show  head  and  shoulders  above  the  people, 
and,  like  the  younger  Saul,  stand  forth  as  rep- 
resentative of  the  best  that  sanctified  human 
nature  can  be  and  do.  Enough  has  been 
said,  we  hope,  to  make  it  plain  that  modern 
missions  in  their  results,  no  less  than  in  the 
principles  upon  which  they  are  based,  the 
problem  which  they  have  to  solve,  and  the 
methods  which  they  employ,  are  a  fair  coun- 
terpart of  the  missions  of  which  the  New 
Testament  gives  account.  It  is  good  to  be 
assured  that  the  modern  missionary  enterprise 
is  no  longer  an  experiment,  that  a  hundred 
years  of  organized  effort  have  proved  its  per- 
manence, laid  bare  its  principles,  and  tested 
and  approved  its  methods.  But  it  is  more  to 
know  that  it  is  a  child  of  that  which  was 
conceived  on  Olivet,  which  was  brought  to 
birth  at  Pentecost,  and  which  reached  ma- 
turity in  the  work  of  Peter  and  Paul  and 
John ;  that  it  is  heir  to  every  encouragement 
upon  which  the  early  church  could  lean ;  and 
that  its  prospects  are  in  sober  truth  "as 
bright  as  the  promises  of  God." 


235 


Selections  from 

Fleming  H.   Revell  Company's 

Missionary  Lists 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago :  63  Washington  Strett 
Toronto :  154  Yonge  Street 


{MISSIONS,  GENERAL 


Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress. 

A  Sociological  Study  of  Foreign  Missions.     By  Rev.  James 
S.  Dennis,  D.D.     Students'  Lecturer  on  Missions,  Prince- 
ton,  1893  and  1896.     With  over  100  Illustrations  from 
Photographs.      2  vols.,  8vo,  cloth,  gilt  top,  each,  $2.50. 
"  A  new  and  notable  book  on  foreign  missions.     Their  influence 
is  studied   from   the  view-point  of  the  sociologist,  and  results  of 
fresh  interest  are  brought  forward.     The  Evangelistic  aim  is  duly- 
honored  as  paramount ;    but  special  attention  is  devoted  to  the 
social  significance  of  mission  work  as  introducing  stimulating  and 
corrective  ideals,  giving  promise  of  beneficent  and  far-reaching 
changes  in  the  status  of  non-Christian  peoples.      The  author  has 
takea  great  pains  to  inform  himself  as  to  the  social  conditions  of 
heathenism. 

Foreign  Missions  After  a  Century. 

By  Rev.  James  S.  Dennis,  D.  D.  Fourth  edition.  8vo, 
cloth,  $1.50. 

11  A  broad,  philosophical,  and  systematic  view  of  the  missionary 
work  in  its  relation  to  the  living  Church." — The  Independent. 

A  Concise  History  of  Missions. 

By  Rev.  Edward  Munsell  Bliss,  D.D.     i6mo,  cloth,  75c. 

Strategic  Points  in  the  World's  Conquest. 

The  Universities  and  Colleges  as  related  to  the  Progress 
of  Christianity.  By  John  R.  Mott.  With  a  Map.  Fourth 
thousand.     i2mo,  cloth,  $1.00. 

A  New  Programme  of  Missions. 

A  Movement  to  make  the  Colleges  of  all  Lands  Centers  of 
Evangelization.  By  Luther  D.  Wishard.  Introduction  by 
Rev.  R.  S.  Storrs,  D.D.     i6mo,  paper,  25c;  cloth;  50c. 

The  Missionary  Pastor.  ! 

Helps  for  Developing  the  Missionary  Life  of  his  Church, 
By  Rev.  J.  E.  Adams.  With  Charts  by  R.  J.  Kellogg. 
i2mo,  cloth,  75c. 

The  Student  Missionary  Enterprise. 

Proceedings  of  the  Convention  of  the  Student  Volunteer 
Movement,  Detroit,  1894.     8vo,  cloth,  $1.50. 

"Make  Jesus  King;." 

The  Report  of  the  International  Students'  Missionary  Con- 
ference, Liverpool,  1896.     8vo,  cloth,  net,  $1.50. 


(MISSIONS,  GENERAL 


The  World's  Missionary  Conference  Re- 
ports. 

Being  the  Report  of  the  Centenary  Conference  on  the  Pre  t- 
estant  Missions  of  the  World,  London  1888.  Edited  1/ 
Rev.  James  Johnston,  F.S.S.,  Secretary  of  the  Conference. 
Two  large  8vo  vols.,  over  1,200  pages,  cloth,  net,  $2.00. 

The  Holy  Spirit  in  Missions. 

By  Rev.  A.  J.  Gordon,  D.D.  Graves'  Lectures,  1892. 
i2mo,  paper,  net,  50c;  cloth,  gilt  top,  $1.25. 

Medical  Missions. 

Their  Place  and  Power.  By  Rev.  John  Lowe,  Secretary 
of  the  Edinburgh  Medical  Mission  Society.  Fourth  edition, 
i2mo,  cloth,  $1.50. 

A  Primer  of  Medical  Missions. 

By  Rev.  John  Lowe.  Outline  Missionary  Series.  i6mo, 
paper,  20c. 

A  Manual  of  Modern  Missions. 

Historical  and  Statistical  Accounts  of  the  Principal  Prot- 
°,stant  Missionary  Societies  in  America.  Great  Britain,  and 
the  Continent  of  Europe.  Illustrated.  By  Rev,  J.  T. 
Gracy,  D.D.     i2mo,  cloth,  $1,25. 

Open  Doors. 

Hints  about  Opportunities  for  Christian  Work  in  all  parts 
of  the  World.     i6mo,  paper,  15c. 

The  Greatest  Work  in  the  World. 

The  Evangelization  of  all  Peoples  in  the  Present  Century. 
By  Rev.  A.  T.  Pierson,  D.D.     i2mo,  paper.  15c. 

The  Evangelization  of  the  World. 

A  Record  of  Consecration,  and  an  Appeal.  By  B.  Broom- 
hall,  Secretary  of  C.  I.  M.     Illustrated.    4to,  net,  $1.00. 

Modern  British  Missions. 

With  References  to  American  Missions.  By  Rev.  E.  P. 
Rice,  Rev.  J.  P.  Hobson,  and  others.  Edited  by  Rev. 
R.  Lovett,  M.A.  Present  Day  Primer  Series.  i8mo, 
flexible  cloth,  net,  40c. 

"Do  Not  Say;" 

Or,  The  Church's  Excuses  for  Neglecting  the  Heathen. 
By  J.  H.  Horsburgh,  M.A.     i2mo,  paper,  net,  10c. 


MISSIONS,  MISCELLANEOUS. 


Korea  and  Her  Neighbors. 

By  Isabella  Bird   Bishop,    F.R.G.S.     Illustrated.     8vo, 

cloth,  $2.00. 
A  record  of  travel  and  residence  in  Manchuria,  Eastern  Siberia 
and  Korea.     Mrs.  Bishop  reached  the  last-named  country  just  after 
its  invasion  by  the  Japanese,  and  remained  in  or  near  it  for  nearly 
two  years. 

Among  the  Tibetans. 

By  Isabella  Bird  Bishop,  F.R.G.S.  Abundantly  Illus- 
trated.    Second    edition,      i2mo,     paper,    35c;    cloth, 

$1.00. 
"This  volume  is  as  fresh  and  striking  as  was  Miss  Isabella 
Bird's  first    notable    venture,  the    much    appreciated  '  Unbeaten 
Tracks  in  Japan.  "' — The  N.  Y.  Times, 

Lady  Missionaries 

In  Foreign  Lands.  By  Mrs.  E.  R.  Pitman.  Missionary 
Biography  Series.  Illustrated.  Fifteenth  thousand. 
i2mo,  cloth,  75c. 

Missionary  Heroines 

In  Eastern  Lands.  By  Mrs.  E.  R.  Pitman.  Missionary 
Biography  Series.     Illustrated.     121110,  cloth,  75c. 

Letters  from  Armenia, 

By  Dr.  J.  Rendel  Harris  and  Helen  B.  Harris.     With  8 
Illustrations  from  Photographs,  and  a  Map.     Prefatory  let- 
ter from  Mr.  Gladstone.     i2ino,  cloth,  $1.25. 
*'  In  many  respects  the  most  illuminating  account  of  the  state 
of  affairs  in  Armenia  that  has  been  given  to  the  public  since  the 
fearful  massacres  of  the  past  two    years." — The  Review  of  Re- 
views. 

An  Intense  Life. 

A  Sketch  of  the  Life  and  Work  of  Rev.  Andrew  T.  Pratt, 
M.D.,  Missionary  of  the  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.  in  Turkey,  1852- 
1872.     By  Rev.  George  F.  Herrick.     i6mo,  cloth,  50c. 

In  the  Path  of  Light  Around  the  World. 

A  Missionary  Tour.  By  Rev.  Thomas  H.  Stacy.  Pro- 
fusely Illustrated.     Small  4to,  cloth,  $2.00. 

Robert  Whitaker  McAll, 

Founder  of  the  McAll  Mission  in  Paris.  A  Fragment  by 
Himself,  a  Souvenir  by  his  Wife.  With  Portraits  and 
other  Illustrations.    8vo,  cloth,  $1.50. 


Princeton 


heologica 


Seminary   Libraries 


1    1012  01186  8363 


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